She Raises Her Face Towards the Moon
by agendersubaru
Summary: The Sakamaki family has a new member. The brothers struggle to create a family-like environment for their new sister, and also to keep her out of the hands of those who wish to exploit her.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N: So this is my first Diabolik Lovers fic! Also my first fic in a while! So I might be a little rusty, haha…I just wanted to clear up a few things before I get started. This fic is pretty self-indulgent, meaning that I kind of loaded it with a bunch of headcanons I have. So, if that's not the kind of fic you want to read, that's fine! Also, each chapter is two sections: The first is from when the boys were children (Subaru wasn't born yet at first), and the second is in the present. When you see a little divider in the middle, that's when it switches. Sorry if it's confusing! Thanks for reading!**

 **Also, please don't read this if you have any triggers concerning the usual Diabolik Lovers stuff. Blood, knives, abuse, drowning, kidnapping, and some pretty rough sexual harassment will be featured in this story.)**

Since this story is one that is largely based on memory, it would be best to start from the parts that nobody remembers.

All three of the Sakamaki triplets cried when they were small, just as most children cried - Kanato cried loudly and often, hyperaware of every inward and outward force that displeased him. Ayato cried sporadically and without warning, often without any reason either. Laito didn't cry much over things a child should cry about, like scraped knees or getting his hair pulled, but he did cry when he heard one of his brothers crying so they wouldn't cry alone. As a result he would exhaust himself (between Ayato and Kanato, there were a lot of tears) and cry himself to sleep.

Ayato was, by nature, one of those kids who had to stay close to his mother. He was touchy in general, without realizing it - he would grip onto his brothers' hair when he slept next to them and grab his mother's dress while he walked with her. Unfortunately for him, Cordelia hated the clinginess of children to begin with, and Ayato's tendency to touch her whenever given the opportunity resulted in her avoiding physical contact with him. In an effort to "fix" himself so he could be with his mother more often, Ayato forced himself to bury his hands in his pockets, but he was too restless for this effort at restraining himself to last for too long. Ayato still unconsciously puts his hands in his pockets when he thinks he's bothering someone.

The exception to Cordelia's reluctance to engage in physical contact with her children was in the presence of her husband, which was rarely and yet (it seemed to her children) to be far too often. During his visits, Cordelia wished to appear as motherly as possible to him, and she did so by returning Ayato's clinginess twofold. If the two of them were turning a corner and suddenly met with her husband, Ayato would feel her hand on the back of his head and suddenly get a face full of her dress. He would struggle against her hold on him, afraid he might suffocate, until she finally released him and settled for holding his hand (though Ayato's hand was too little to keep a good grip on, so she settled for his wrist instead).

It's common knowledge to the Sakamaki boys at present that their father has the power to change his appearance at will, but to young Ayato, the man in front of him was a stranger. A very tall, overly-friendly-looking stranger; so Ayato shyly hid behind his mother until he was yanked by the wrist and forced to present himself properly.

The stranger was all smiles, and after a chat with Cordelia that nearly bored Ayato to death (especially because his brothers were playing outside and he wanted to join them), he turned his attention to the redhead boy several feet below him. He spoke with alacrity, but only to his children. His wives didn't interest him as much as they did, because his wives weren't going anywhere.

"Good evening, Ayato," he greeted cheerfully. Most adults might lower themselves to eye level to speak with a child that age, or at least bow his head to allow the child to see their face, but this stranger seemed satisfied with his position up in the air. "Have you been keeping up with your studies?"

Ayato, who had occupied himself by poking at his sprouting fangs with his finger, jumped and flushed with embarrassment at being addressed so suddenly. "Hullo. I guess so, mister."

"What kind of books have you been reading?"

Ayato lifted his head a bit higher. He started to speak faster, because there was a lot he wanted to say and he feared he would forget it, and as a result, a childish slur became apparent in his voice. "Yesterday Laito - that's my brother, he's really nice to me - he was readin' to me an' Kanato - 'cause Kanato's not a good reader, but I'm okay - an' in the book there were these pictures of dragons an' it even said where they lived, it said they lived in Norway, an' I went to find Norway on the map, an' it's kinda far from Japan but I think I can make it-"

Cordelia squeezed Ayato's wrist so hard it made him wince. She often grabbed his wrist or shoulder in a mock-affectionate way when she wanted him to stop talking. "Why, darling," she said too sweetly. "Your father wants to know about what you're reading with your tutor, not those silly fantasy books."

Ayato looked up at her. "When my father asks, I'll tell 'im," he said simply.

What happened after that will be omitted, but it became (painfully) clear to Ayato that the stranger he spoke to was, indeed, his father, though it was still a mystery to him why his father looked different to him every time he saw him. After receiving the necessary punishment for being rude to him, Ayato went to his brothers for advice.

"You aren't crazy," Laito told him, watching Ayato rub the cheek Cordelia had slapped. "He does look different. I swear he gets taller every time I see him."

Kanato was amusing himself by poking at some bats in a cage. "It's normal for a person to get taller, isn't it?"

"No, no, lots of parts are different. I think he's a shapeshifter."

Ayato leapt to his feet. "If he's our father an' he's a shapeshiffer, doesn't that make us shape-fifters too?"

"Shapeshifter," Laito corrected him, speaking slowly so Ayato would understand. "And I don't know. Try changing into something."

Kanato turned his attention away from the bats, finally interested. "I would turn into a bird. Then I could fly places."

"I'm gonna try an' be a lion!" Ayato announced. He then sat down, crossing his arms and focused so intensely on changing into a lion that his eyes went crossed. Laito laughed at him.

"If I could shapeshift, I would turn into Ayato or Kanato. Then I would be handsomer." Kanato looked pleased with Laito's compliment, Ayato doubly so.

"But we're already triplets, so we already look like."

"That doesn't matter, because Ayato's a lion now."

Ayato grinned at Kanato. "Lions can _eat_ birds."

"No they can't! Birds fly away before they get eaten!"

"That's okay, Kanato," Ayato crossed his arms again, looking proud of himself. "I wouldn't eat you anyway, because I'm a nice lion."

"But you _couldn't_ -"

The two went on like that for some time with Laito struggling to intervene. The subject of their father's shapeshifting power was long forgotten, as they were children and couldn't think on these things for too long, and years later they learned about his powers in more detail and all the fun was taken out of it. Eventually, the question "Why does our father always look different?" was replaced with "Why don't we ever see our father?" and the answer was usually, "He's busy so stop asking questions."

And they eventually got rid of all their questions, except for when their older brother Shu ushered them into another room (where Reiji was studying and trying his best to ignore them) and told them he had a secret for them. The triplets happily followed him, excited by the idea of a secret. Their sense of curiosity perked right back up.

"Are you ready? You have to quiet down or no one will hear it," Shu told them in a whisper.

"I'm quiet! I'm quiet!" Ayato cheered.

"You're clearly not," Kanato told him.

Once the triplets settled down, Shu got down on his knees so he could talk up to them rather than down to them, and he whispered, "…We might be getting a little brother or sister soon."

The three of them lost it. "Oh my God! I don't want one," Ayato wailed, tugging dramatically at his hair.

"Ah, I want a little sister! I really, really want one!" Laito sighed dreamily, clasping his hands together.

"A little brother or sister…" Kanato sounded ready to cry. "No, no! Everybody will forget about me…!"

"We're not going to forget about you, Kanato!" Laito rejoined. "And the new baby will have to call you big brother."

Kanato thought over that for a while. Being called big brother might be pretty nice, but he would have responsibilities and he would have to share things with them. "I still don't like it…"

As the triplets bickered, Shu leaned on Reiji's chair. "What do you think? Do you want a brother or sister?"

Reiji was still trying to ignore him, but the question settled in his head nonetheless. "…A sister, I think. I've had enough of brothers."

"Haha! That's kind of mean."

"And I hope she's dreadfully stupid," he went on, shutting his book. "And I hope she's plain, and I hope you love her."

Shu didn't know what to think of that first part. "I'm sure I'll love her." He paused. "Are you being sarcastic?"

"I'm always serious."

Ayato came running. "Shu!" he demanded his attention. Reiji took the opportunity to go back to his book. "When's the new brother or sister gonna get here?"

Shu frowned, thinking. "In a few months. Later on we'll know for sure."

"How?"

"It's kind of complicated."

"Where's she comin' from?"

"…?"

Ayato grinned. "If it's gonna take a few months then is she from some place far away? Another country?"

"Oh, oh. No."

"Then where?"

Laito started to laugh. "Ayato, you're going to bother Shu if you ask questions like that. I can teach you!"

"Huh?! You're keepin' secrets from me, Laito?!"

Reiji spoke up. "To spare the gruesome details, babies come from mothers after the mother's egg is fertilized by the father's sperm."

The others went into shock at how blunt he was. Ayato scrunched up his face. "Well, _I_ certainly didn't come that way."

"Yes you did. All of us were born that way."

"Not me," Ayato asserted, then turned his back to Reiji to let him know that this conversation was over. Laito, Shu, and Kanato were still gaping over the exchange that just happened right in front of them.

"…Reiji!"

Reiji glared back at them. "What? He was going to find out eventually."

But Ayato had already moved on. "You know," he told Kanato and Laito. "More than a new brother or sister, I would much rather have a dog."

Kanato made a face. "Dogs are loud and stupid. I think a cat would be better."

"Ah…I really want a sister…" Laito sighed wistfully.

The wait for a brother or sister ended up lasting a long time. A very, very long time - long enough for Ayato and Kanato to forget about it completely. Laito didn't forget. In fact, after a few months, he realized it was taking quite a long time and he started to pray for a little sister. Literally praying to God before bed because he wanted a little sister so badly. His prayers were conversational, as if he was asking a friend rather than God. God didn't answer him directly but Laito convinced himself that he was listening and that, if he was really good, then he would get the little sister he wanted. Still, there was no news.

 _Well, God, it's okay if it's a brother too. I'd love a brother just as much. What I'm saying is, maybe I can have a little sister someday too, but a brother is fine._

The topic of a new brother or sister did not come back up again.

 _Okay, so, I don't really care what it is and you can take your time, God, because I can be patient, but I would at least like to know if you're working on something._

Months and months and still nothing.

 _Maybe you're busy making miracles and stuff, God, but you know? - I'm a really responsible brother already; I proved it with the others, so I think I can handle one more. So if that's what you're worried about, I can handle it._

When he asked Shu, he only frowned and shook his head, making Laito's heart sink.

 _God, if you're making me wait on purpose, I want you to know that it's not funny._

"I didn't want to bring it up because I thought everyone forgot about it. Apparently it's not happening."

 _Why not, God? What'd I do?_

Shu shrugged and put on a sad smile. "Father's new wife had a miscarriage. But maybe they'll try again someday."

"What's a miscarriage?"

 _I think the problem is, God, that you're not really real. That would make a lot more sense._

"It means there was a baby, but it passed away before it was born. I'm sorry, Laito. I know you were excited for a new baby."

Laito clenched his fist and hung his head, glaring up at Shu. "It doesn't matter much."

Shu blinked his eyes at him. "Well, just make sure you don't bring it up around Ayato and Kanato. I'm sure they'll be sad."

"Uh-huh."

"Look!" Shu tried to smile again. "You have to take care of the brothers you have right now." Laito didn't answer that, but instead turned away and headed back to his room.

So God didn't exist after all, which was unfortunate, but at least it taught Laito not to get his hopes up. Laito treated his brothers cruelly for some time after that, because they weren't the kind of sibling he wanted. Of course, it quickly became clear to him that, under the circumstances, the three of them needed to support each other. So he plastered a fake smile on his face, and went back to patting Kanato's head when he cried and reading stories to Ayato, even though it meant suffering through those bitter feelings.

Ayato never remembered that he was supposed to have a brother or sister. Kanato did, out of the blue while Laito was reading. Suddenly he started to sniffle and weep quietly into his hands.

"What is it this time?" Ayato asked, somewhat annoyed.

"It isn't anything. I'm just sad," Kanato whined in response, not wanting to talk about it.

"Don't be dumb. If something's bothering you then I'll punch it until it goes away!"

Kanato didn't respond, just sobbed. He didn't even want another sibling; he was just disturbed by the idea that it might be dead. All he knew was that there was a baby and now there's not. Laito put the book down and stared at Kanato for a while, lips parted in surprise, when suddenly his eyes stung. Hot tears rolled down his cheeks and fell onto the pages of the book, and he hastily wiped them away. Once the two realized they were crying together, they stopped holding back and cried without restraint like children.

Ayato looked back and forth between the two, horrified that something was going on that he was unaware of. He whimpered, and his eyes filled with tears too, because he was scared of what was happening to his brothers. He grabbed onto their clothing so they wouldn't disappear, and he cried along with them, though not quite for the same reason.

At night near a cake shop there would often be a young boy crying underneath the only working street lamp, which would flicker on and off, and it was speculated to be a ghost associated with several disappearances in that area. If the disappearances were blamed on gang violence or something of that nature, then maybe girls wouldn't leave home at night alone, but because it was blamed on something supernatural, the crying boy had his fair share of girls who came up to him asking what was wrong.

Kanato wasn't good at fake crying, so he only went down by the street lamp when he was upset. It was a good tactic for finding girls to drink from, though. It didn't work so well when Laito and Ayato figured out what he was doing, because they started to follow him.

"You always steal my girls!" Kanato screamed at them, practically trembling with rage. "Go somewhere else and find your own! I'm hungry too, you know!"

"Oh, chill out," Ayato said, leaning against the door to the cake shop, which was closed for the night. "It's no problem, is it? If Yours Truly is here then you'll attract twice as many girls."

Laito laughed, aware that this wasn't the case. "Listen, listen. Once we get someone, we'll take her home and we can all share her."

"But she's _mine_ …!"

"You can't claim something you've never seen before, Kanato."

The three boys looked pretty harmless talking together like that, like normal teenagers, so it actually wasn't long until a girl walked right past them, texting and paying them no mind. Ayato stepped right in front of her, and she ran into him.

"-Hey! What the hell?" she snapped, looking up from her phone.

"Hey there." Ayato started to look over her body. "She looks pretty good. What do you think?"

Laito walked up behind her, observing her closely. "She'll do perfectly!" he said with a giggle. "I love thick thighs."

"Get away!" the girl shouted, looking back at her phone. "I'm calling the police-"

Kanato took the phone from her hand, gazed at it for a moment, then threw it onto the ground and watched it shatter. "Like I said!" he shouted. "She's _mine_!"

Ayato plugged his ears. "Shut up! Yours Truly saw her first."

"Regardless of who saw her first, we're all going to be partaking, right? Nfu~…"

The girl started to sweat and broke into a run. She tried to get around Ayato, who was blocking her path, as quickly as possible, but she ended up tripping over his shoe and falling to the ground with a grunt.

Laito laughed at her. "You're a little pathetic, huh?"

"Don't talk to her; I said she's mine…" Kanato grumbled.

"Let's get her home, I'm starving," Ayato said with a grin.

For the girl, it was unclear exactly what happened after that. The three grabbed her and dragged her away, leaving her shattered phone behind. Upon entering their mansion they threw her down onto the floor, where she stayed, because her legs were trembling so much that she couldn't move. Now, as they spoke above her, she could see their fangs clearly.

"We sure are lucky…I haven't seen such a pretty girl in a long time," Laito sighed, his cheeks turning red.

"Don't try to flatter her. She's not that good looking," Kanato said, looking at her with disdain.

Ayato knelt next to her. "I'll be the first to try her, of course," he said with a sneer.

The girl let out a shriek, but of course no one came to rescue her. Ayato pinned her down by the arms, and Kanato held her head in place, and Laito held down her legs. Ayato had paused to enjoy the terrified look on her face when the door opened and Shu stepped in.

Ayato glanced over at Shu. "Thank God, I thought it was someone who was going to ruin our fun."

"Whoa, Shu, were you _outside_?" Laito asked with awe. Ayato laughed at his joke.

Shu stared blankly at them while the girl struggled and called for Shu to help her. "…I was meeting with that man."

"That explains it, then. What did he want?"

Shu ignored them and moved to the couch, laying down and shutting his eyes. Laito laughed at him, commenting about how typical it was.

Then he muttered quietly, "That man's trying for another kid."

It took a second for his words to resonate with the three of them, but they all froze up. Ayato looked over, sure that he had misunderstood. "Who's what?"

"Karl Heinz is trying for another child with Christa."

"…Oh."

It was silent for a while. The girl looked from person to person, petrified. Without speaking, the triplets got off her, and she struggled to her feet and made a break for it, running as fast as her wobbly legs would take her. They let her run.

There seemed like a lot of questions they should be asking, but they couldn't think of any.

"Just what we need," Kanato muttered. "Another kid running around…"

Ayato hadn't figured out how to feel yet, but when Kanato expressed annoyance, he realized he was supposed to be annoyed too. "Yeah. If we gotta deal with a crying baby I'm gonna be so pissed off. And one Subaru is enough!"

Shu didn't offer any comment.

Laito was still in a state of shock. "…Do you think…it'll really happen?"

"Hopefully not."

"Yeah, hopefully not!"

"Hopefully not," Laito repeated, speaking in a monotone.

"I'm tired," Shu mumbled. "Go repeat yourselves somewhere else."

Instead, they both took their place on the couch. Ayato started to talk for the sake of talking. "So Subaru's gonna have his own blood brother. Do you think they'll look alike?"

Kanato crossed his arms, looking dissatisfied. "If the baby looked like Subaru, it would be unpleasant."

"Haha! I'm gonna tell him you said that."

"Go ahead. He won't care. He'll agree with me."

To Kanato and Ayato it became a joke, and Shu wasn't saying a word about it, but Laito occupied himself with staring at the ceiling and thought very hard about what this meant. Most likely, the universe was testing his self-imposed pessimism, and trying to get him to get his hopes up again. But that wasn't going to work, because Christa had had miscarriages before and even if the child did live, it was doubtful that it could stay alive with such incompetent older brothers (and parents) for long, and even if it _did_ live a full life, it would just be another cruel and reclusive Sakamaki. Or, at least, that's what Laito was trying his hardest to believe, because picturing a cute, healthy little sister might drive him mad.

"Laito? What are you looking at?"

Laito started to laugh to himself. "You guys are right. It'd be awful to have another sibling."

"If anything, it's just someone else to ignore," Kanato pointed out.

Ayato looked confused, because he was never really in the habit of ignoring his brothers, considering that he was constantly bored and looking for people to bother. He looked to Shu, who had an unrecognizable expression on his face. His discomfort was clear even though his eyes were shut.

"Go talk about this someplace else," he ordered. "You're noisy."

"Hahaha! I bet Shu is sick of brothers, too."

"If you three don't leave, then I will."

"Shu, you've gotta go tell Subaru!" Ayato ordered.

The rest of them suddenly looked uneasy, since they were very aware of how Subaru would react. "I'm not going to tell him. Get Reiji to tell him."

"Reiji's not gonna do it, if he values his life."

Ayato tilted his head. "I'll tell him."

"You will?"

"Why not? It's not like it's my fault."

Laito looked concerned. "…Be careful. And don't say anything mean."

Ayato didn't really understand what he meant. As far as he was concerned, though, Subaru didn't deserve any special treatment. He halfheartedly promised Laito not to say anything mean, and he headed upstairs.

 **(A/N: End of chapter one! Please tell me what you think. Even though nothing really happened yet :'D)**


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N: Thank you to everybody who read chapter one! And if you're reading chapter two right now then double thank you! You've made me so happy ahhhhhhhh)**

When Ayato was little he was accustomed to bruises and scratch marks. He didn't mind them much anymore, and he only cried a little if it really hurt. Nobody would come to his aid if he cried anyway, and it only got him in bigger trouble with his mother, so he tried to keep his reactions to pain to a minimum. If his mother slapped his face then he could go right on back to playing after she was finished scolding him.

It was on a day after he had been hit, and his cheek was bruised and swollen so his eye was half-closed, that he happened to look up and see a little head in one of the towers. It had white hair. He stared at it for some time, bewildered, and the head stared back. It must've been a kid, since it could hardly see out of the barred window. Ayato grinned when he thought that the kid must be standing on its tiptoes.

When the kid saw Ayato smile, they looked somewhat scared and shrunk down a bit. Ayato realized that they were scrunching up their face and closing one eye, just like he was due to his injury. The kid was making faces at him. Well, two could play at that game.

Ayato went right on back to doing what he was doing (which was drawing stick figures on the ground with his finger), and he pretended not to see the kid. He was giddy with excitement when he felt the kid continue watching him. Suddenly he looked back up at the kid, and he stretched his face with his fingers (though it made his bruises sting) and he stuck out his tongue at him. There was a short moment of silence in which the kid didn't know how to react, but Ayato soon heard a loud burst of laughter coming from him. Ayato felt powerful hearing him laugh so loud, and his mouth broke into an excited grin again. Encouraged, Ayato stuck his fingers in his mouth and showed off his teeth, and crossed his eyes. The kid up in the tower thought it was hilarious, much to Ayato's immense pleasure, and he attempted to imitate Ayato's faces back at him. He was smiling pretty wide too. Even from a distance, Ayato could tell that his smile was peculiar - it was crooked, like he wasn't smiling correctly.

After a while, the kid suddenly ran away from the window and disappeared from Ayato's sight. Ayato was having fun and he was sad to see him go.

He confronted Laito and Kanato about this boy, because he had never seen him before, but they proved to be ignorant of his existence. Kanato even said that Ayato must be seeing things. Ayato decided to ask Shu, even though he wasn't going to get his hopes up because he was aware that Shu had been sort of depressed lately. He didn't know why. But he was too curious about the boy to leave him alone.

Shu was in his room, lying down. Between his tight schedule that his mother forced him into and the fact that Reiji had been saying some rough stuff to him lately, Shu was exhausted. Without knocking, Ayato pushed the door open and leapt on Shu's bed.

"I saw a boy in one of the towers. He had white hair and he smiles like this." Ayato imitated the half-smile he had seen from the kid.

Shu sat up, suddenly attentive now that Ayato was there. "Oh…Christa's son?" He didn't recognize the smile, because he had never seen Christa's son smile, but the white hair gave him a good idea of who it was.

"Chrissa?" Ayato made a face and attempted to say her name again. "Christa?"

"She's one of our father's wives. I don't think you've met her. She has a son." Ayato seemed to be having trouble figuring out what that meant, so Shu explained: "He's your brother."

"No he isn't!"

"Yes he is. Just like how you and I are brothers."

Ayato couldn't fathom the idea of a brother he had never met. "No he isn't," he repeated.

"Whatever."

Ayato whimpered. He didn't want to be ignored. "Okay, maybe he is. How long has he been here?"

Shu shrugged his shoulders. It was a certain amount of years, but he couldn't summon the effort to think about it. He really was exhausted.

"Has he always been in the tower?"

Shu shrugged again.

"Why?"

Again, he couldn't answer him.

"Shu!"

Shu flopped back down on his bed. "Listen, Ayato, I've got a lot of stuff to think about. If you've got so many questions then why don't you ask him yourself?"

A frustrated expression appeared on Ayato's face. "Because you're my big brother."

Shu looked physically shaken when he heard that. He had forgotten that some of his younger brothers were still looking up to him. He started to answer Ayato's questions, but Ayato had already taken Shu's advice. He jumped off the bed and headed for the tower to find that kid.

There were maids in front of the tower with big red eyes. Domesticated demons, like the rest of the servants. They acted as if they were guarding it. Whether they were keeping something out or something in, Ayato didn't know. He ran straight up to them and announced that he was going into the tower, but they stared with their red eyes at him and turned him right around and sent him in the other direction. They said in overexcited voices that there were much better places to explore and that Mistress Cordelia would be furious if she found out that he was sticking his nose where it didn't belong. Ayato couldn't really argue with that, so he gave up on finding the boy for now.

Shu was deeply affected by what Ayato had said to him, so he made an attempt to make it up to him by formally introducing Ayato to his brother. It was sort of a pain getting both of them to the courtyard at once, because Ayato was always studying (and even when he wasn't, he was hard to track down because he was such a wild kid) and his brother had to stay with Christa almost constantly. But eventually Shu found time to round up all of his brothers (including Reiji, surprisingly) and introduce them to the newest addition.

"This is Subaru. He's Auntie Christa's son."

Nobody but Shu and Reiji knew who Christa was (they weren't really informed about their father's wives), but they were all so fixated on this kid that they didn't ask. Subaru was absolutely puny, and he looked terrified of them since they were considerably older than he was. He clung to Shu's sleeve like his life depended on it. His lips were agape and he was missing his front teeth.

Reiji stepped closer and leaned down a little, putting his hands on his knees. "Hello, Subaru. How old are you?"

Subaru answered with trembling conviction, "Twelf." He tried to hold up twelve fingers, but he realized that he didn't have that many. He had been alive for twelve years, but due to the slow aging process of vampires, he was only about five in terms of appearance and maturity.

"Well, Subaru, my name is Reiji. I'm your older brother. That means you have to respect me." Reiji stood up straight and put his hands on his hips. "Not because I'm older, even though age is a factor when it comes to superiority, but because I'm experienced and responsible and I can look after you. You should listen up, because I have a lot to tell you. First of all, it's fine if you call me Reiji, since we're not close enough for you to call me 'big brother' and anything more formal would be inappropriate…"

Reiji kept talking and Subaru looked horrified at the surplus of words he was hearing. Ayato crept up behind Reiji and he put his hands to his eyes so they resembled glasses. He put on an air of superiority and mimicked Reiji's movements as he rambled on.

Shu smiled, and Subaru burst into laughter. His laugh was just as loud as the one Ayato had heard from the tower. However, Subaru immediately slapped his little hands over his mouth, since he knew he wasn't supposed to be laughing.

Reiji narrowed his eyes at them. "I don't remember saying something funny." He looked behind him, where Ayato was standing with his hands behind his back with an innocent smile on his face.

"It's nothing, Reiji," Shu said with a gentle smile. "It just means Subaru likes you." But Reiji had already turned red and stormed off.

"I'm sick of brothers!" he snapped. "I didn't want another one!"

That comment probably would have hurt Subaru, but he was distracted when the triplets ran up to him.

"I'm Ayato," Ayato said, patting his hand on his own chest.

"N-Nice - to-" He was taking quite a long time to speak, and his words came out childishly slurred. "…meet you."

"I've never seen you before. Where've you been for twelve years?"

Subaru timidly pointed a finger upwards.

"Up?"

He nodded.

"You mean in the tower?" After seeing him nod again, he asked, "Why didn't you ever come down?"

Subaru stiffened, and his next words sounded robotic: "Not s'pposed to."

Shu explained for him. "Father's wife Christa lives up there, and Subaru is supposed to stay with her."

Ayato spaced out for a moment. Laito was at Subaru's side next. "Hi Subaru! I'm Laito! You're a real cutie, aren't you?" Subaru hesitantly shook his head.

Kanato shied away from him. "I won't let you borrow Teddy," he warned him.

Ayato was already bored. "Laito, Kanato, let's go back to building our fort." In the span of a few seconds, Subaru went from being overcrowded to almost alone, except for Shu.

After he saw Subaru staring blankly as the triplets ran off, Shu knelt down next to him. "They're kind of funny, but you'll like them. Do you want to go play with them?"

Subaru didn't even need to think about it. He shook his head no.

"Is there somewhere else you want to go?"

"Home." He sounded upset.

Shu frowned. "But this is home."

Subaru looked confused. "Christa," he said, looking at Shu was if he was hoping he would understand what he meant.

"Your mother? Do you want to go back to her?" It was a mystery to Shu why Subaru wasn't calling her "mother," but he figured Subaru wouldn't be able to explain.

Subaru nodded at him. Shu took his hand, since Subaru was still a small child and was dreadfully intimidated of the enormous castle. He walked him back to where his mother was kept. It was a long, long time before Subaru left that tower again. The others practically forgot that he existed.

 **xxx**

Making as much noise as possible for the sole purpose of pissing Subaru off, Ayato stomped upstairs and pounded on Subaru's door. "It's me! It's Ayato! It's me! It's m-!"

Subaru's voice groaned and shouted, "Fuck off! You're too loud!"

"Yours Truly has something important to tell you!"

Subaru's voice said haughtily from the other side of the door, "It can't be important. You never think about important stuff."

"Well, I'm not thinking about it, I'm telling you about it."

"Go away before I get mad! I'm busy!"

 _Busy being a dick._ "Shu's too chicken to tell you, so I have to!" Ayato snapped, angered by his disrespect.

Subaru went silent, and then eventually opened the door. "What about Shu?"

"Shu doesn't want to tell you because he's afraid you might get mad." Ayato crossed his arms. "Of course I'm not afraid."

It must be serious, then. "Tell me what?"

"I don't want to tell you anymore."

"Ayato! What are you, five?!"

"Now I _really_ don't want to tell you." Subaru nearly turned around and slammed the door, but Ayato grabbed his arm at the last second. "All right, all right! I'll tell!"

Subaru looked at Ayato very seriously as he waited to hear the news, and suddenly Ayato felt uneasy. He didn't understand what the big deal was about Christa having another kid, but now that he was face-to-face with Subaru, he realized that for one reason or another, it would be a big deal to him.

"Well?" Subaru said impatiently.

Ayato fidgeted. "Don't get mad."

"Tell me already!"

"Shu was talking to the old man today. He said that he's thinking about having another kid. With Christa." Ayato braced himself.

Subaru was eerily quiet. "Are you lying?"

"I'm not. That's what Shu said."

"I'll kill him," Subaru muttered.

"What?"

"I'll kill that guy!" Subaru's voice suddenly rose to a shout, and he stormed past Ayato.

Ayato jogged after him, since he wanted to see what would happen. "You mean Shu? Why are you going to kill him? What did he do?"

"Not Shu, idiot! That old bastard!"

Ayato stopped in his tracks. "Our father? No way."

"Subaru looked back at him. His eyes were alight with fury. "You think I can't?" His voice was like poison. Ayato was genuinely afraid. "I don't give a damn what happens to me. I'm gonna kill that guy no matter what."

Ayato couldn't respond; he was chilled by what Subaru was saying. Shu, who had a feeling that something like this would happen, had followed Ayato upstairs and chose now to reveal himself. "All right, that's enough."

Subaru flinched, overwhelmed now that two people were against him. "Back off!"

"You're not going anywhere and you're not killing anybody. Calm down."

Subaru's mouth opened and he looked like he was trying to force the words to come out, but he couldn't do it. After another try, he yelled, "I won't let him touch my mother!" He shut his eyes tightly, and grabbed a fistful of his hair. He looked as if he was in pain. "I won't let him lay his filthy hands on her again!"

Ayato broke out of his paralysis. "I didn't mean to make you mad," he said hastily.

"Shut up. Just go away. You don't know anything," Subaru growled.

Shu spoke up. "Subaru, Ayato and I both don't want you to go confront that man."

"I don't give a fuck about what you want."

Shu went on, "The reason we don't want you to go is because we know you'll get hurt. Both of us don't want you to get hurt."

"You don't have to lie to me." Subaru looked dead serious. "If I walked out right now, you wouldn't even stop me. So don't waste your breath with lies like that. I'm not stupid enough to believe them."

Shu was honestly lucky that Ayato was there, because Ayato saw that as a challenge. "Of course I would stop you," he announced.

"Bullshit."

Ayato was already in fighting stance. "If you try to leave now, I'll tackle you," he swore.

Subaru glared at him challengingly, and turned around to walk away, standing up as tall as he could. Ayato wasn't bluffing. Within moments Ayato had flown at Subaru and they were both knocked to the ground, kicking and shouting at each other. Shu looked on, unwilling to break up the fight.

The noise attracted Reiji. "What in the world are you doing?" he demanded in a booming voice. Ayato and Subaru froze mid-punch. "The hallway isn't the place to play foolish games."

Ayato recovered the courage to speak first. "Subaru was the one being foolish! I'm an angel."

Subaru had been awfully shaken up earlier by the news, but Ayato had lightened the mood considerably. "I wasn't being foolish! Ayato was!"

"Why are you two fighting?" Reiji cut them off.

Nobody wanted to answer. Ayato and Subaru quietly separated from each other in order to avoid speaking. Shu wasn't willing to explain either. But Subaru eventually started in a slow, quiet voice. "I said I was gonna kill someone and Ayato was trying to stop me." His impulse to verbally abuse himself wasn't satisfied, so he added: "I said I was going to kill the old man."

Reiji raised an eyebrow. "Karl Heinz?" Subaru nodded, feeling regretful but not daring to show it on his face. "That was awfully stupid of you to say."

Subaru didn't object.

"As his son and the future head of the household, I cannot allow you to go through with this, or even make accusations of that nature. You're forbidden from leaving the house until you've gotten such ideas out of your head."

Subaru didn't look terribly bothered by that, and besides, Ayato had taken his desire to kill away. He only stared icily at the floor.

"You're grounded," Ayato laughed.

"Tch. It's not like I care," Subaru responded, crossing his arms.

"Ayato, you're in trouble too. Picking a fight with Subaru while he was in that state was stupid."

Subaru flushed with embarrassment, and Ayato scoffed, "Only because he wanted me to do it."

Even though Reiji said Ayato was in trouble, Ayato received pretty much no punishment. There were a few reasons for that. First and foremost, Reiji didn't exactly care if Ayato and Subaru beat each other to death, as long as they didn't make a mess. Second, Ayato had more or less stopped Subaru from making an attempt on his father's life, even if he did so in a bothersome way. There was no way Subaru would have succeeded, so Ayato saved him from whatever terrible punishment he would receive from his father. Ayato seemed to know it, too; he treated himself like a hero for the rest of the day.

So Subaru was confined to his room, even though this was not exactly a big change for him. His desire to murder that man had subsided, but he was still tortured over the news that Ayato had given him. As he lay in his room and glowered at the coffin lid above his face, he couldn't stop thinking about how _at that very moment_ that bastard could be putting his grimy hands all over her. He would make her suffer through another pregnancy all alone. She would be in pain and Subaru would be powerless to stop it. He had always regretted his own birth, and now the same thing was going to happen again.

At this point, Subaru was sick of being angry. He felt so anxious he was afraid he might be ill. He clutched at the key on his chest till his knuckles were white and he wished desperately to see his mother.


	3. Chapter 3

"You never should have been born," a voice sobbed from inside a dark room. Her weeping voice echoed off the walls. "Oh God, it was a mistake. A mistake. I wish I could take it back. You never should have existed."

The sound of a ceramic cup being placed on the ground. "I know, Mother."

"Don't say that, don't say that. Don't call me that. Oh God! I've made such a mistake!"

"Mother, please drink something. You haven't drank anything since yesterday."

"I said _don't call me that_ , you wretched thing - and _don't touch me!_ "

Some quick footsteps. "I didn't touch you," the second voice promised. "I didn't. Please drink something."

The woman's voice came out in exasperated gasps. "You're going to poison me," she choked. "I know you are. Because I say such awful things to you. You would love to have me dead, wouldn't you, you little monster?"

The second voice sounded strained. "I wouldn't."

"I know." There was a brief moment of silence. "Maybe that's just what I was hoping."

The silence stretched out a little longer. "I'm going out," the second voice said, almost too quiet to hear. "Please drink something while I'm gone. It will calm you down."

"Oh, don't leave! I'm terrified of what will happen if you leave." She started sobbing again. "He'll come get me. He'll come get me again. I don't want him to. Not again."

There was a pause in which only the woman's weeping could be heard. "I'll stay," the second voice mumbled. "If you drink a little."

"You'll poison me."

"I was with you the entire time. You didn't see me put anything in it."

"I wasn't looking at you," she said contemptuously. "I feel sick when I look at you. You never should have been born."

Another pause. "I know."

"Oh, God. I'll drink if you promise it will kill me."

"I can't promise that. I didn't poison it."

She sighed shakily. "I know. You're too cruel to take pity on me like that."

"…"

After Christa had calmed down, Subaru departed from her as quietly as possible to avoid setting her off again. He wasn't far from the tower when he saw Shu, who was sitting on the gazebo with a book and a plate of pastries. Subaru was going to walk right past him and find a place where he could be alone, but since Shu wasn't dreadfully interested in that book, he noticed Subaru and called him over.

Subaru joined him under the gazebo, and Shu smiled at him and held out one of the pastries. "Do you want one? I got enough for two people, but Reiji said he didn't want any." Internally, Shu didn't think it was that funny, but he laughed so as not to worry Subaru.

Subaru shook his head. He wanted to cry really badly and it was hard to hold back.

"Do you like sweet things?"

To avoid dragging on the conversation for any longer, Subaru responded with a noncommittal shrug. He didn't really know anyway. He never had sweet stuff.

"Want to try just one bite?"

It did look pretty tempting. Subaru cautiously reached out and took the pastry from him. He stared at it for a while, but he couldn't see it correctly because his eyes were watering. He took a bite. He was immediately overwhelmed by how sweet it was, and it was filled with jam from some fruit he had never tasted before. It was warm, too, and Subaru thought that it felt really nice. Before he could even swallow that bite, hot tears rolled down his cheeks. He shuddered and started to cry quietly.

Shu wasn't all that surprised, since it had been obvious to him that Subaru was about to cry the whole time. His smile softened and he ruffled Subaru's hair. "Is it good?"

"Yeah," he sobbed through the mouthful of bread.

Shu got off his chair and sat on the ground next to it instead. He patted the spot next to him to invite Subaru to sit next to him. Subaru obliged, wiping the tears off his face with his sleeve. They both sat with their backs against the chair for a while, making no noise aside from Subaru's sniffling.

"Hey, Subaru, want to hear a joke?"

Subaru looked at him curiously. Fresh tears kept spilling down his face no matter how many times he wiped them away.

"Okay, get ready. Why doesn't bread like warm weather?"

Subaru stared expectantly.

"Things get toasty!" Shu grinned.

Subaru paused for a second, not understanding at first. When he did get it, he laughed out loud through the tears. In fact, laughing suddenly only made him cry harder, but at least now he was smiling. His smile was crooked. This was the first time Shu had seen his peculiar smile. Between giggles, Subaru looked down at the half-eaten pastry in his hands, and then he held it up to show to Shu.

"It doesn't like warm weather?"

"Nope. It likes cloudy days, I guess."

"Then why do you cook it in an oven?"

Shu laughed. "You got me! But dough wouldn't taste as good as bread. So it's all right if we bake it." Subaru nodded in agreement and the two continued eating together.

 **xxx**

Despite the doubts of the Sakamaki boys, Christa gave birth to another child. A girl. Laito would have been stunned if he had heard.

Shu had received the news from his father but it had been too much of a bother to tell anyone. Subaru, due to his frequent trips to visit his mother, was able to find out on his own. He even got to see the baby, though only for a brief moment and he wouldn't get close enough to get a good look. He didn't tell anybody either, at first. So nobody knew why Subaru was so upset. He had gone nonverbal and shut himself away.

But of course Subaru couldn't avoid speaking to everyone forever, even though he would have liked to. The matter was weighing too heavily on his mind and he had to tell someone. He decided on Shu, because Shu wouldn't make a big deal out of it.

"Shu?" Subaru's voice cracked because he hadn't used it in so long.

Shu was on the couch as always. If it were anyone else then he might just go on pretending to sleep, but Subaru only ever came to him if something was very wrong. So he opened his eyes. "What is it…? I'm tired…"

Subaru looked emotionally drained. He struggled to figure out where to begin, and Shu yawned as he waited. Finally, he said, "Our sister."

"What about her?"

"We have one," he said cautiously.

"I already know that. That man told me."

Subaru felt awfully stupid, and that made him angry. "Does everybody know?"

Shu raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. "Oh, yeah, I forgot…"

"Forgot what?" He was having trouble raising his voice.

"I was supposed to tell them. Oh well." Shu concluded his thought and settled back down, yawning once more. "You can do it if you want."

"Hah? That's your job, isn't it?"

Shu stared at him seriously. "Listen, Subaru. Right now, this is something that only you and I know." Subaru stiffened a bit. He hadn't realized that. It made him feel somewhat powerful. "The rest of them are totally ignorant. They have no clue," Shu corrected himself. It was better to use simpler words with Subaru.

"Y-Yeah…"

"And you're the only one that can tell them. Because you know and they don't."

That was, admittedly, a pleasing idea. There was almost never a time in which Subaru knew more than everybody else. "I'll go tell them," he said finally.

"Good." Shu shut his eyes again, and Subaru hurried off to find Reiji.

When he found him organizing papers into different folders in his room, Subaru stood in the doorway and glowered at him until he was noticed. Reiji looked up and stared back, taking notice of how empty his face looked. "What is it?"

Subaru spoke slowly. "We-" He stopped himself. "I have a sister."

Reiji stared thoughtfully at him. "You're sleepwalking," he decided, going back to putting papers in folders.

"What?"

"You came into my room looking half dead and speaking nonsense. You're sleepwalking. Ayato and Kanato do it all the time. It's genetic."

Subaru looked confused. "I'm awake!" he insisted. "And I really do have a sister. Shu was supposed to tell you."

"Go back to bed."

He was starting to get angry. "I swear! She's - She's really small, and my mother won't let her go. She hardly has any hair yet. And she doesn't cry much."

Reiji observed him for a moment. Subaru seemed awake, but he still had to doubt that their father would have another child without telling him. "How did you find out?"

"My mother wrote me a letter. And I went to visit her and I got to see-" His eyes lit up suddenly. "That's it! I have proof! Wait here!" He dashed off to retrieve the letter. Reiji followed at a slower pace, curious.

The letter was easy to find because Subaru's room was pretty barren and there weren't too many places for him to put his belongings. The letter read as follows:

 _My dearest son,_

 _I hope that my past messages have reached you, because I am afraid I did not receive a reply._

 _I have given birth to a healthy daughter since you have last visited me. I have named her Ruri. She is very strong. The nurses let me hold her very soon after her birth, and they kept my abode very clean for her. I am sorry to say that they did not do the same for you, but I am glad they are doing it now. When you were born, they would not let me hold you for days, because you were such a delicate baby._ (Subaru cringed when Reiji read that part aloud.) _Ruri very much has a similar face to yours. I cann-t wait for you to see h-r. I hope y- com- visit so-n to s- y-r baby s-st-. I know you w-l get alo-. I d- wa- y-u to -sit us a-ain._

 _Y- m-._

The last few lines were completely illegible. Subaru could read them without a problem, but Reiji couldn't even read the signature. Subaru already looked terribly ashamed, so Reiji didn't make any comment on it for his sake.

"A daughter…" He mumbled pensively, looking over the wild and sporadic marks of the pen in the last lines.

"I wasn't sleepwalking," Subaru insisted again, snatching the letter back.

"I'm going to tell the others. And give that good-for-nothing a piece of mind for not telling me right away." Reiji marched out with the prideful stature that he showed whenever someone was in trouble. He appeared deep in thought at the same time.

Subaru looked at the letter again, holding it very carefully so as not to damage it. He gazed for a long time at the parts Reiji couldn't read. He felt immensely ashamed. He wished that he had forgotten about the letter, so Reiji wouldn't have had to read it. That was torturous. His eyes stuck on the word "Ruri," which was written with particular care. Then he shoved the letter back in the drawer he had retrieved it from and tried to forget about it.


	4. Chapter 4

Dealing with little siblings is tough. You have to recognize their body language so you know when they're sad or angry, and you have to know what makes them happy again. Even though Shu has a surplus of little siblings, he was particularly gifted at this.

One thing that Shu knew was that if one of his brothers were crying, they probably aren't upset for the reason they say they are, but for some other reason. For example, when Ayato was upset, he would always run to Shu and complain about how his head hurt, his eyes hurt, his neck hurt, and he wanted it to stop hurting. And Ayato wasn't exactly lying when he said that he was in pain, but Shu could tell that Ayato was only really upset because he had been studying for hours and hours and he needed some kind of human contact.

But Ayato was relatively easy to figure out. Reiji was not so easy. He was extremely difficult to deal with for Shu especially. Reiji didn't cry so much, but he did have intense panic attacks, and Shu had no clue how to stop them. It seemed like they only got worse when he tried.

When around their mother, Shu could tell when Reiji was about to have an attack, but their mother couldn't tell at all. Shu could see Reiji's jaw clamp shut, and his fingers curl into tight fists and shake, and every once in a while Reiji would shudder and he would face away from his mother in a desperate attempt to hide his symptoms and recompose himself. Once they were away from their mother, though, Reiji would quit trying to hide it. He would have trouble breathing and tears would leak from his eyes.

And for the life of him, Shu couldn't figure out how to fix it. Everything he said or did just made Reiji angry.

"The problem isn't him, it's you," Edgar would tell him smartly. He took the stick he had picked up on their walk in the woods, and he pointed it at Shu. "You're only making him nervouser when you pay so much attention to him."

Shu ignored "nervouser," since he could forgive Edgar for not being as educated as he was. "But I can't just leave him alone. He's my brother."

Edgar marched ahead, kicking up dirt and swinging the stick like a baton. "I don't know nothing about brothers," he admitted. "Since all I got's a baby sister. But I know some stuff about dogs."

"Dogs?"

"My dogs Bear and Pig just had puppies. You ever seen German Shepherd puppies?"

Shu was impressed by Edgar's unusual dog-naming skills. He couldn't tell which was the male name and which was the female name. "No, never."

"Well, when puppies are born, they can't open their eyes. So they just crawl around each other, squealing a bunch."

"Yeah." Shu already knew that, but he didn't interrupt him.

"And when the first pup gets his eyes opened, he wants to play with the other ones. But they can't because their eyes are still closed. So the first pup steps all over them 'cause it's trying to play, but it scares the others 'cause they don't know what's stepping on them."

Shu was getting a bit confused.

Edgar turned and fixed his excited eyes on him. "So you're like a German Shepherd puppy with open eyes," he started with a big smile. "And you want your brothers to play with you, but they can't see anything yet. And if you don't stop stepping all over them then you're gonna hurt them." Edgar put his hands on his hips and grinned. He was apparently pretty proud of his metaphor.

Shu didn't exactly understand. "…So you're saying I should leave my brother alone until he "opens his eyes?'"

"Right! See, I can give pretty good advice," he laughed. Shu smiled shyly back at him and nodded his head.

So he made up his mind to leave Reiji alone when he was having panic attacks, but he couldn't bear to avoid him _all_ the time. That would just be ridiculous. Imagine, never talking to your own brother!

Later that day, when Shu returned from his walk with Edgar, Reiji was in their room studying at his desk as per usual. Shu came in and sat down on the floor with a tired sigh. He kicked off his shoes, which were full of dirt. "You'll never guess what happened to me today."

"Hm." Reiji put his pen down and started flipping through his dictionary.

"Edgar said his dogs had puppies. Do you know what his dogs' names are? Listen to this, it's hilarious."

"Hm."

"Bear and Pig. I get the feeling Pig is the girl, but that seems kind of rude."

Reiji didn't answer. He flipped the pages of his dictionary in a slightly irritated fashion. Suddenly he asked, "Did you rip a page out of this?" as he held up the dictionary.

"Huh? Maybe. I might have." Shu moved a bit closer and leaned against the legs of Reiji's chair. "Anyway, I wonder what he'll name all the puppies. I wonder how many there are."

"You can't just rip pages out of books. This book is _mine_. And now I can't find a word because of you."

Shu flinched. "Well, I don't think I ripped a page out. I don't remember ripping a page out. But we can get you another dictionary."

Reiji huffed and tossed the dictionary aside angrily. Things were quiet for a little while.

Shu started to talk again. "I hope he names one of them Cat. I think that would be pretty funny. But then again, maybe he won't name them at all, since they're probably going to sell them. They're sheep dogs, after all, so they usually sell them-"

Reiji got sick of Shu distracting him, and the fact that he was leaning on his chair really bothered him, so he suddenly scooted his chair backwards forcefully. The corner of the seat of the chair hit the back of Shu's head hard, and Shu whimpered in pain and started to rub his head.

"That hurt! What was that for?"

"You're distracting me. And you tore a page out of my book."

Shu's heart sank. "I'm sorry about your book. But all I was doing was talking. You never talk to me anymore. If I was bothering you then you could have just said so instead of hurting me." His voice cracked.

Reiji was quiet for a second, and then he turned and looked at Shu. "Did it hurt?"

"Yes, it did." Shu sounded really upset. The back of his head was stinging, but he was hurt even more by the fact that Reiji would do such a thing in the first place. His stomach was aching. "It really did hurt."

To Shu's surprise, Reiji hesitated and mumbled, "I'm sorry…" and his eyes started watering.

Shu stared at him wide-eyed. He was sorry. Immediately Shu's head stopped hurting, and the sick feeling in his stomach felt better too. He quickly assured him, "Oh, it's okay, Reiji. I'm not mad."

Reiji had started tearing up badly. He looked like he was about to start bawling any second. He shut his eyes tightly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Shu got to his feet. "Reiji, it's okay. I shouldn't have bothered you. And it doesn't hurt that badly." Shu really did feel a lot better, even though he didn't like seeing Reiji cry. He was happy to hear him apologize, and he was sort of glad to see that Reiji felt bad for hurting him. However, Reiji's next sentence completely ruined that:

"Please don't tell Mother."

Shu's face went blank. So that's what he was so upset about.

"Please, please don't tell Mother. I'm sorry," Reiji sniffled.

Shu smiled, but it wasn't a genuine smile at all. "I'm not going to tell her," he assured him softly. So Reiji wasn't sorry at all. He was just afraid of what would happen if their mother found out. Well, Shu didn't really blame him. But it still felt awful.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't tell."

"I won't tell."

Shu didn't talk with Reiji too much after that.

So Edgar's metaphor still made sense, but he might have gotten a few things backwards. Maybe Reiji was the puppy that opened his eyes first, and he was walking all over Shu, and Shu was the one who was blind and confused. And maybe, years in the future when Reiji and Shu grew up (and after Edgar was long gone), Shu never opened his eyes. He just learned to accept it when Reiji walked all over him.

 **xxx**

After the secret was out about their little sister, Subaru was bombarded with questions, most of which were from Laito. And most of which he couldn't answer.

"You really saw her? What was she like?"

"Like a baby," Subaru responded plainly.

"Did she look healthy?"

"I don't know. I didn't get close."

"How old is she now?"

"Haven't been keeping track."

"When can we see her?"

"Don't know." Hopefully never.

The answer to that last question, though Subaru didn't know it at the time, turned out to be "in over a decade." For over ten years Subaru was the only one to ever see this girl, though only about once a month. For some reason, Christa didn't need him as often now that she had another baby to take care of. But still, she was constantly inviting him over to visit. It was her way of attempting to bring the "family" together, which Subaru thought was stupidly sentimental, but he didn't want to ruin her happiness.

Every month it would be, "Subaru, Subaru, come a bit closer and hold up your hand. Don't be shy. Look how tiny her hand is compared to yours!" It was indeed a very tiny hand. A very tiny, fragile hand with breakable bones. Subaru kept a large distance away from her for her own safety.

In a matter of time, Ruri learned how to walk and her hair grew out long. Christa kept her hair in two neat braids. Subaru started to suspect that Christa had always wanted to do her daughter's hair, because she looked at her hair lovingly and touched it frequently. It was a smoky white color. And Ruri's face was rounded and her eyes large and a much duller red than Subaru's, and her nose was all dotted with dark freckles that stood out against her fair skin. Christa laughed and said while staring admiringly at her face that her own mother used to have freckles when she was young, but she grew out of them.

So Ruri resembled her grandmother. But that didn't mean a thing to Subaru because he had never been allowed to meet his grandmother.

One thing that Subaru had noticed (that he neglected to tell his brothers) was that he had seen her walk and even attempt to communicate with him, but he had never heard her talk. The only time he had ever heard her was when she was an infant, and she cried whenever she saw him because he was a stranger. Other than that, Ruri had mastered the art of keeping quiet.

Over the years, Subaru's brothers gradually stopped asking him questions, because he never had answers. Laito periodically asked how she was doing (Subaru noticed that Laito always referred to her vaguely and he never used her name) but that was it. The unrest that was created after Ruri's birth gradually started to settle down.

Until, that is, Reiji called a family meeting to discuss some news. Usually he held those meetings in the living room, since Shu never moved from there, but for this particular occasion he called everyone to the game room. He was still resentful that Shu had not told him about their sister, so he wanted to get back at him by keeping him in the dark.

"Is everybody present?" Reiji didn't wait for anybody to answer. "Then we can begin."

Ayato did a double-take and then he started mouthing numbers to himself. "There's five of us," he announced. "But…I can't figure out who we're missing."

Laito hadn't noticed. "Did you count yourself?"

"Of course he counted himself," Kanato commented. "How could he forget himself? This is Ayato we're talking about."

"Is Subaru here?"

"Subaru's here."

"Oh, I almost didn't notice him. His presence is so thin. But that still makes five."

Subaru glared at Ayato. "We're missing Shu," he muttered. He suddenly looked at Reiji.

"Oh! I forgot all about Shu." Ayato looked at Reiji too. So did Laito and Kanato.

Reiji didn't meet any of their eyes. He ignored the mention of Shu's name and went on. "I've called you all here to talk about something concerning our sister."

Their eyes widened in surprise. They hadn't heard about her in so long. Reiji's tone suggested that the news was unfortunate.

Laito was holding his breath without realizing it. He felt sick hearing that. He was _terrified_ that his sister was going to die. He could already hear Reiji's voice: "She died of an unknown illness", "She was malnourished and starved to death", "She rolled over in her sleep and suffocated"…

Reiji went on. "I recently spoke to Father about her. He told me that it was a shame that we never met her."

"She choked to death the first time she tried solid food", "The mansion suddenly went up in flames", "Everything was fine and then her heart just stopped"…

"So, since he and Christa are appearing at a party in Holland, he said this was the perfect opportunity for us to get to know her, as well as to learn some responsibility, which I have to agree with. Long story short, Ruri will be staying at our house for a few weeks."

Laito thought he might faint. "Oh, my God," he cried out.

Subaru looked startled, but he didn't want to object in front of everyone, so he grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and forced himself to be quiet. It was harder than it looked. He was shaking with rage. This was absolutely unacceptable. Ruri would _die_ here. What would happen to his mother then?

Kanato was the first to voice his disapproval. "No way! She'll be so dreadfully annoying! I don't have time to take care of babies!"

"She's not a baby anymore," Reiji reminded him calmly. "She's about eleven now." Eleven years old, that is, but in terms of her growth (because she's a vampire), she was about five. This is the same reason none of the brothers changed at all in that decade.

"This sounds dumb," Ayato commented. "I don't want any little girls in the house."

"You'll have to deal with it. It's an order from our father." Reiji wasn't willing to budge on this because this was one of the very few times that his father gave orders to him and not Shu. Reiji didn't want to disappoint him.

"If she goes in my room then I'll kill her," Ayato swore. Laito and Subaru both looked at Ayato like they wanted to kill _him_.

"I'll keep her out of trouble," Reiji told him. "So that won't be necessary."

"We can't," Subaru spoke up at last. He sounded desperate. "We _can't_ -"

"Please stop complaining," Reiji cut him off sharply. "She won't bother you. She'll be spending most of her time studying anyway. Besides, we don't have a choice."

Subaru gripped tighter onto his shirt. Reiji wasn't going to listen to him after all. In order to suppress his anger, he bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood, and he stormed away from them.

Once Subaru left, everyone else followed his lead and broke off in different directions, complaining loudly. They were all bothered by Reiji's announcements, for multiple different reasons. Shu remained ignorant, just like Reiji wanted him to.

A few days later, Reiji actually spoke to Shu while he was lying on the couch, which was incredibly unusual. Shu couldn't even remember the last time Reiji willingly spoke to him. "I would suggest you tidy yourself up a bit."

Shu stared at the ceiling. "Why?" he asked lethargically.

Reiji was smiling. "Maybe the queen of England is coming to visit. You never know."

Shu glanced at him suspiciously. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Out to do a few errands. Pick up a few things." Reiji left the house without another word. Shu chose to ignore him and went back to sleep.

He was awoken a few hours later by a small finger prodding at his side.

When he opened his eyes he saw a very familiar face on a little girl with her hair in two braids. She was staring at him with a concerned expression, and when he showed signs of being alive, she was transfixed with fear.

Shu sat up immediately, confused as to why there was a little girl in the house. The sudden movement caused the girl to step backwards, and she bumped into the coffee table and squeaked in surprise.

Shu looked around and saw Reiji, who was locking the door with a satisfied expression. "Who is she?" Shu asked.

"The queen of England," Reiji responded sarcastically.

Shu looked back down at the girl. She was staring at him curiously, as if he were a corpse that had just come back to life. Shu was able to recognize who she resembled right away. And he realized that Reiji had caught him off guard on purpose. He covered his face with his hand and started to laugh. The little girl looked at him in wonder, her eyes brightening a bit when she saw him laugh.

"What are you laughing about?" Reiji asked with a frown.

"The queen of England," Shu laughed. "That's funny."

The sound of Reiji coming home plus the scent of some new feminine presence in the house attracted Kanato and Ayato.

"Did you bring food?" Ayato asked excitedly, looking around for a girl. "Did you get a good-looking one?"

Kanato spotted the girl first when she peeked out at them from the other side of the couch. "Ah! It's only a child. Reiji, this isn't funny."

"She's not food," Reiji said sternly. "This is Ruri." Ruri wasn't paying any attention to their words at all; she was only staring blankly at Kanato and Ayato.

"Ruri? Oh! Subaru's sister." Ayato turned away, heading back upstairs. "Got my hopes up for nothing."

Kanato stared right back at Ruri. He didn't know why, but he felt jealous already. "Why is this little vermin here? We don't have room for her. How are we going to feed her?"

Shu flinched at the word "vermin." He took another long stare at Ruri, who did not seem bothered by it at all. In fact, she was bored of Kanato now. She was more interested in the couch that Shu was sitting on. She was touching it with both hands, feeling the texture of the fabric. Shu asked very quietly if she wanted to sit down, but she looked at him without answering. Shu patted the seat next to him to silently convey that she had permission to sit there, and she climbed up and settled down. She smoothed out her dress with her hands and then went right back to touching the fabric.

Reiji went on, "Don't concern yourself with how we're going to feed her. I've got that covered. I've also prepared one of the guest rooms for her."

"Agh! She'll be so loud," Kanato groaned. "She'll bother all of us. I wish you had prepared a dog house instead."

Kanato's words seemed to be hurting Shu much more than they were hurting Ruri. Either Ruri was blocking out the sound of his voice, or she just didn't understand what Kanato was saying. She started to swing her legs and Shu noticed she was still wearing her shoes. He mumbled, "Here, let's take your shoes off…" and he unbuckled them and took them off for her. Her shoes were shiny and black, and Shu thought that they must be her best pair.

Meanwhile, Reiji had to admit to Kanato that Ruri was an inconvenience. "It was an order from our father. There's nothing we can do."

"I think there's plenty of things I could do," Kanato grumbled, glancing at Ruri again.

Ruri had started to occupy herself by playing with her braids. Shu looked at Kanato. "Shut up."

"Why are you telling _me_ to shut up?!" Kanato demanded. His voice got much higher in pitch.

"You keep saying that girl is going to be annoying, but she hasn't said a word this whole time while you've been going on and on about it."

"I'm going on about it because _I know she's going to be annoying!_ "

"All right!" Reiji cut in, glaring at Shu. "Shu, stop trying to make it worse. Honestly."

Shu did not meet his eye. Ruri was looking at him with her lips parted, wondering why he looked so angry.

Reiji approached and touched Ruri on the shoulder. "Come on. I'll show you to your room." Ruri blinked her eyes at him, and when Reiji started to walk away, she hopped down from the couch and followed him like a duckling.

Shu leaned back and looked up at the ceiling again. He was already exhausted, even though he had only interacted with Ruri a little. Not that she came off as a troublesome kid by any means - no, Shu was actually impressed with her ability to keep her mouth shut. That would prove to be a useful skill in this household. No, she wasn't troublesome at all, but Shu was still exhausted. He was exhausted because he suddenly remembered what it was like to have a younger sibling.

And he remembered that you have to pay attention to their body language, and look out for anything that might be wrong, and you have to figure out what to do in order to cheer them up when they're sad. Having younger siblings was complicated. Shu had to wonder how he ever had the energy to look after all of them.

As Reiji led Ruri away, he said in a voice loud enough for Shu to hear, "Ruri, you should stay away from that person in the living room. He's a bad influence." And Ruri nodded at him.

He really did have to wonder how he did it.


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N: I probably should have mentioned this at the beginning, but this fic contains some gender headcanons that you might not agree with. And you don't have to agree with them, but please refrain from leaving transphobic comments in the reviews. Thank you! Also this chapter contains a flashback in the first half, so it's kind of like a flashback within a flashback. It's in italics. Sorry if it's confusing!)**

The Sakamaki boys didn't have much that reassured them in their childhood, even with such a large family, but Kanato's singing voice helped everyone. It allowed Cordelia to return to her youth for a brief amount of time, and it kept Subaru company when he was alone with his mother, and it calmed the rest of his brothers down. Everyone liked it when Kanato sang. So they were always asking him to sing. He was like a music box.

 _"Won't you sing for me some more, my songbird?"_

Kanato gradually grew tired of that question, because he wasn't a music box, or a songbird; he was a person. What exactly was he singing for, anyway? He didn't dislike the act of singing, but it certainly didn't benefit him at all, and it hurt his throat if he sang too much. He wanted a break from it, but it was all he was expected to do around the house, so he couldn't exactly stop. Besides, it would make his mother angry if her little songbird lost his voice.

As the triplets settled into bed next to each other, Ayato started to complain, "I wish one of you could study in my place. I'm sick of it."

"You ought to be grateful," Laito commented. "Because Mother spends all her time on you."

"But I hate the way she treats me too," Ayato went on. "She lets you guys play and she talks to you like she loves you. With me, all she does is knock my towers over and stuff."

Laito scoffed at him. "But that isn't a big deal. They were just blocks, and it was only one time. You need to let that go."

"It wouldn't be a big deal if I knocked them over myself," Ayato huffed. "If I did it myself then it would be fine. Even if it were an accident, it would be fine. I'm mad because _she_ did it."

"Maybe we could switch places," Kanato offered. "Because we're triplets and we look alike, we could get away with it. I could study for you."

"You can have my place," Ayato told him. "But I don't really think I would like yours. Standing around singing all day sounds just as boring. When all you do is sing, you don't have any goals, right? And anyway, I can't sing like you. I would rather have Laito's place."

Laito looked startled and then turned away to stare out the window. The curtain was drawn, though, so he couldn't see outside. "You can't have my place," he mumbled, a troubled expression on his face.

"Maybe this is useless after all," Ayato sighed. "Because even if Kanato takes my place, Kanato can't become head of the household."

Kanato grimaced. "That's stupid. You're stupid, Ayato."

"Am not! It's the truth. Even if you study hard and Father dies, you still can't be King."

"You're so stupid, Ayato!" Kanato looked ready to start choking him. "You're so stupid! Why can't I be King, huh? Why not?!"

Ayato inched away and put his hands up to defend himself. "I think you'd make a great King, honest. But you can't because other people don't think so."

"Well, what do they know?!"

"They don't know nothin', but…"

"That's right! They don't!" Kanato crossed his arms in a huff. "I can be King, easy."

Ayato frowned. "But I'm gonna be King. Mother says so."

"Well, you will be King. But if we switched places, then I _could_ be King."

"Kanato could, if he worked hard," Laito chimed in. "Right, Ayato?"

"But…" Ayato looked uneasy. "Okay."

The fact is, the important people in the Demon World wouldn't respect Kanato as King no matter how hard he worked, or if he switched places with Ayato, or in any other case. And all three of the triplets knew that.

 _"Kanata, sing one more song for me."_

"Shu." Subaru tugged on his older brother's sleeve. "Wake up."

Shu had been fast asleep at the table where he had been studying. He stirred and rubbed his eyes. "What is it?"

Subaru was clearly very nervous to be initiating this conversation. Usually he didn't speak unless he was spoken too. "I think you made, um, a mistake."

Shu looked at him. "Huh?"

Subaru gripped onto the hem of his shirt. "You intr-introduced me to all my brothers, but you didn't tell me that I had a sister."

Shu raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

Subaru hesitated. "Yesterday Chri-Christa took me to a dinner party - it was my first one, and it was really loud there - and someone asked me how my sister was doing. If I have a sister, I think I would like to meet her, please."

Shu blinked, still sleepy. "Oh…Those people must have been talking about Kanato."

He seemed afraid to speak up, because he was afraid that his assumption might be wrong. "Kanato's a girl?"

"No, no. Kanato is a boy." Subaru's face went red. Shu continued on, "A lot of people just don't believe that he's a boy."

"…Why?"

Shu couldn't think of an easy way to explain it to a child. He could get technical, but he was afraid of what would happen if Subaru started treating Kanato like a girl. "It's complicated. All you need to know is that Kanato is a boy."

"Because," Subaru stared at the ground. "A lot of times, when I was in the tower, I could hear Kanato singing from down below. I heard him before I met him, too. And before I met him I thought it was a girl that was singing. So maybe the people at the party thought the same thing." He started to wonder if what he was saying was mean, so he added, "I really like his singing."

"I like his singing too," Shu said, ignoring everything else that Subaru had said.

"Do you think, if we told those people at the party that Kanato is a boy, then that would fix things? They would be embarrassed, but it would be worse if they kept calling him a girl."

"I don't think they would stop, Subaru."

Subaru tilted his head. "Why?"

Shu shook his head. "It's complicated."

"Oh." Subaru started to look elsewhere. He wanted to know why, but he was very aware that he wouldn't understand complicated things. So he let it go.

 _"Will you cut my hair, please?" Kanato asked Laito, handing him a pair of scissors._

 _Laito blinked. "I just cut your hair a few days ago. Did I do a bad job?"_

 _Kanato sat down so Laito could easily access his hair. "I want to cut all of it off."_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"Make my hair as short as yours, and then even shorter."_

 _"But Kanata, you worked so hard to grow your hair out long. And Mother always says she loves your long hair." Laito ran his fingers through Kanato's hair. "Are you sure about this?"_

 _"I'm sure about it, and I don't really like the name Kanata."_

 _"You don't?"_

 _"No, I wish you'd call me Kanato instead."_

 _"That's a boy's name."_

 _"Are you going to start cutting my hair or not?"_

 _Laito looked startled. "I understand that you want short hair, but if…if Mother finds out that I cut all your hair off, she'll be furious with me."_

 _That was an understandable reason to be hesitant. "I'll just tell her I cut it myself. But I need you to do it, because if I really do cut it myself, then it won't look good."_

 _"But then she'll be furious with you instead. I don't want that to happen, either…"_

 _"I don't want long hair," Kanato said plainly. Laito sighed and started cutting. When his long locks of hair fell to the floor, Kanato felt a weight lift from his body, both literally and metaphorically. He grinned when he felt at the bare back of his neck._

 _"Is it okay, Kanata?"_

 _"Kanato," he corrected him._

 _"Oh, right, sorry. Is it okay, Kanato?"_

 _"I like it." He turned to Laito and smiled wide. Laito still wasn't so sure about this (specifically about how their mother would react), but since Kanato looked so happy about it, he smiled back at him._

 _"It does suit you."_

 _"Don't tell me I look beautiful," Kanato warned him. "I'm tired of hearing that word."_

 _"I was going to say you look handsome."_

 _"Oh! That's good." Kanato looked even more pleased with himself now._

 _"Want to borrow some of my clothes for a while?"_

 _"Can I? Do you have any that will fit me?"_

 _"We can fix them so they fit. I'll teach you to sew."_

 _So everything more or less worked out. Kanato got the haircut he wanted, and a bunch of new clothes, and he learned how to sew, which was a skill he would definitely put to use in the future._

 _Cordelia was, as expected, furious with Kanato. As a suitable punishment, she nailed Kanato's bangs to the wall, and Kanato had to stand on his tiptoes till all the feeling left his legs and he collapsed and it ripped out a big chunk of his hair. So, in the end, Kanato didn't really get the haircut he wanted. And it actually hurt a lot. But everything else was okay._

 **xxx**

During her stay at the Sakamaki mansion, Ruri learned from Reiji who she was supposed to stay away from. She learned that she was supposed to stay away from Shu, Ayato, Laito, Kanato, Subaru and anybody else she didn't know. That was pretty much everyone except for Reiji and her tutor (and if Reiji had it his way, he would be the one to replace her tutor). And even Reiji told her to stay away from him if he was busy, which was frequently. So Ruri was mostly studying the whole time.

When she needed something, she headed for Subaru first, which not only irritated Subaru but also worried him. He didn't want to be a role model. He was definitely not cut out for that.

And it was also annoying how Ruri would never knock, just try to open the door. This wasn't a problem because Subaru's room was always locked (it concerned Shu that this was a fire hazard, but he never spoke up about it, and Subaru wouldn't feel comfortable leaving his room unlocked anyway), but it still bothered him that Ruri wasn't knocking.

He would open the door for her and ask slowly and carefully, "Can't you knock? Like this?" He tapped his knuckles against the door to show her. "This means you're asking for permission to come in. Understand?"

Ruri did not show any signs of affirmation. It worried Subaru, but he figured Reiji would be drilling manners into her head anyway so she would learn one way or another.

And indeed Reiji did try to teach her manners, but while she imitated his movements closely, she was still unresponsive verbally.

"She's selectively mute," Reiji said, as if he were giving a diagnosis. He waited for someone to ask what that meant.

Subaru gave in, even though he thought that it should have been obvious that he didn't know. "What's that mean?"

"She's afraid because she's in a new environment full of strangers. She won't speak to anyone that she doesn't trust. I believe she'll be speaking to me once the week is over." He said that rather proudly. Ruri was his new experiment, and he had high hopes for this project.

Well, Ruri learned perfect posture and dining habits but she did not open her mouth once. Not for Reiji or anybody. And Reiji left her with bruised arms for being so disobedient.

That being said, nobody went out of their way to speak to her either, except for Reiji. Occasionally Shu would ask her if everything's okay, but Shu wasn't much for conversation anymore. Laito especially kept out of her way.

Actually, it was quite a while before Laito even saw his younger sister. He had promised himself that he would avoid her like the plague, because getting attached to her was dangerous. Her life wasn't guaranteed here, and the God that he didn't believe in already proved that he wasn't afraid to kill little sisters. So he decided to never meet her. But he did, because Laito was so horribly bored being stuck in his room all day, so he eventually went down to the living room to play cards, and he saw her in the hallway.

He kept his eyes glued to the ground in order to avoid looking at her at all, and he kept mentally reminding himself that she would die eventually. But even as he was averting his eyes, he could see that she was small; oh God, she was so small. He could feel her staring at him, which was only natural because he was a stranger, but she didn't make any attempt to get his attention.

When he couldn't take it anymore and he looked at her, he caught sight of her just in time to watch her trip over her dress and fall face-first. The terrible thought that she might start crying sunk in and Laito sprung into action.

He was kneeling at her side in an instant, helping her up. "Oh, sweetie, are you okay?" He took her arm and looked over her elbows for scrape marks. He was absolutely frantic. "That was a nasty fall. Well, no wonder - your dress is so long, the hem is covering up your feet. Of course you're going to trip if your dress is this long. We can't have you walking around in a dress that doesn't fit you! Don't worry, I can sew; I'll shorten it for you - oh, but instead of shortening all your dresses, we'll have to buy you some new ones. Yes, we'll buy you some new clothes that fit you better, and they'll be new and they'll look nicer, and you can pick them out yourself. But if we get you a shorter dress then you'll need new socks. We can't have you showing your ankles - and the socks you're wearing right now are all worn down, so we'll have to buy socks too…"

So much for trying to avoid her. The second he met her, he was already spoiling her.

The word "no" was not exactly in Ruri's (extremely limited) vocabulary, so she ended up with lots of nice new dresses, and socks, and shoes, and sunhats, and things of that nature. Not that she needed sunhats, because she was a vampire and she couldn't go out in the sun in the first place. But Laito didn't see her as a vampire, he saw her as a little girl. And he bought that little girl anything she laid her eyes on, until all of his allowance money had disappeared.

When Laito saw Ruri all dressed up in her new clothes (which fitted her much better and had a more feminine touch to them), he took a sharp, emotional intake of breath. "I think you look beautiful. Do you like them?"

Ruri did not answer. She was too busy inspecting the dress. She touched the tiny flowers around her waist with her fingers, and she stared in awe at the pale pink color of her socks and the shininess of her shoes. She smiled wide, and laughed gleefully, and spun around to feel the dress flowing around her legs. Laito's chest tightened and he almost had to avert his eyes to keep his emotions in check. "I guess you like it," he laughed as a shade of pink crossed over his face. Ruri responded by enthusiastically holding his hand in both of her much smaller ones, and looking at him expectantly so they could go to the next store. She looked happy.

Just like that, Laito had abandoned his former plan of leaving his sister alone, and he was practically her best friend now. Later, the triplets were playing a game of old maid and Ruri was sitting in Laito's lap. When Ayato presented his hand to Laito, Laito would ask, "Ruri, which card should I pick?"

Ruri had to watch Laito do it a few times to understand, but after a few rounds she understood that she had to pick one card out of Ayato's hand. She would think about it for a long time, and then point to a random card somewhere in the middle, and Laito would take that card.

"This is ridiculous," Ayato snapped after Ruri had just narrowly missed the joker. "She can't play. She takes too long."

"You're just mad because she's beating you." Laito patted Ruri's head, and she beamed at the praise.

"No, it's because only _we're_ allowed to play."

Kanato backed him up. "Yeah, it's for family only. That's why we don't let Reiji play."

"But she's family," Laito objected. On a protective impulse, he started to fix her braids. "And she isn't doing any harm. She's little and she wants to play too."

"That's just the thing! She's little. I don't want to play with babies."

"I wish you two wouldn't talk about her while she's right here. She can hear you."

"She never had a problem with it," Kanato insisted. He was growing more and more bitter towards this girl. "She must be too stupid to figure it out."

Laito covered her ears. "Stop it! I don't want her to hear things like that." He hesitated before saying, "You sound like Mother when you say things like that."

Kanato slammed his hands against the table in a fit of rage. "So?! How dare you bring Mother into this! The fact is that this thing is so stupid that it can't even talk!"

Ayato laughed, enjoying their argument, and relishing the fact that he had been the one to start it. He took the joker out of his hand and showed Ruri. "Hey, kid, look at this. It's Kanato!" He laughed at his own joke. Ruri didn't really understand, but she saw Ayato laughing, so she laughed too.

"I heard that! I'll kill you-!"

"Calm down, calm down! It's awful to get angry in front of a lady!" Laito scolded him.

"There's no _lady_ here!" Kanato's face was red now. "Only a pathetic little monster! There's no _lady_ in this house at all!" Tears came to his eyes, and he got up and stomped out of the room. Ruri watched him go, bewildered.

Laito went back to fixing her hair. "Don't worry, Ruri," he said softly. "Kanato gets mad all the time. But he's a good person. He doesn't mean what he said."

"Why don't you ever say anything?" Ayato asked her suddenly.

"Ayato, that's not really something a child can answer."

"Well clearly she can't answer it because she's not saying anything. She's setectively mute, or whatever Reiji said."

"Selectively mute," Laito corrected. But he was starting to doubt what Reiji said, because Ruri was more than comfortable around Laito and she still wasn't saying a word to him.

Ayato continued to ask her questions. "Can't you nod yes or no? Can't you do anything? Kanato wouldn't get so mad if you responded at least a little. Then Reiji would stop punishing you, too."

Ruri folded her hands in her lap and stared at Ayato.

"I wish you would do _something_ ," Ayato sighed. "You're the most useless baby I've ever seen."

Laito didn't appreciate his choice of words, but he was starting to agree with the sentiment that it would be better if Ruri could communicate a little. "Ruri, maybe we could start off small. Maybe you could just say hello."

Ruri didn't even seem to be aware of the fact that Laito was talking.

"Hold up three fingers," Ayato ordered.

Ruri hesitantly did as she was told. She held up three fingers.

"Now say 'hello.'"

Nothing.

"Laito, you try."

"Ruri, can you say hello?"

Ruri was starting to look a little scared.

"Here, why don't we start with your name? Your name is nice and easy. It's Ruri. Ru-ri. Can you try saying Ruri?"

Now she looked _really_ scared.

"Laito, you're doing it all wrong," Ayato snapped. "Let me try. Hey, kid, can't you say your own name? It should be easy, right?"

Ruri made a whimpering noise and covered her face with her hands. She started to cry quietly.

"Look what you made her do! She's crying now because of you!"

"Me?! What did I do? Gah! I hate kids after all."

Laito hugged Ruri from behind. "It's okay, Ruri. You don't have to do it. You can talk when you're ready." Ruri sniffled and tried to wipe her face with her hands.

"Maybe we...Maybe we got her name wrong," Ayato considered.

"I don't think so…Reiji and Subaru definitely said Ruri."

"Maybe…nobody calls her Ruri at home?"

"But that doesn't explain why she can't say anything else!"

"Maybe…maybe…I don't know. Maybe all girls are like this. I've never had a sister before."

Laito lifted his eyes and stared at Ayato for a moment. He released Ruri and stood up, setting her on the chair. "I'm going to talk to Kanato. Don't do anything mean to her."

"Wha-? Don't leave me with the baby!"

"She isn't a baby. Try to cheer her up while I'm gone. Try to make her laugh."

Laito left, and Ayato stared at the crying kid in front of him. Try to make her laugh, huh…

When Kanato stormed away, he headed up to his room, tears streaming down his face. He felt as if his clothes were restricting him, since his chest felt tight, so he started to take them off as soon as he closed the door. He removed the ribbon from around his neck, his vest, his shirt, his binder, and finally his shoes, and then he climbed onto his bed. He lay on his back and stared at the ceiling, hugging Teddy to his bare chest, and wiping the tears off his face.

He stayed in there for a while and eventually he quit being mad and started to feel a little sorry for saying that stuff in front of a little girl. Not that he was planning on apologizing, because he was still sure that everything he said was true.

He heard a knock on his door, and he immediately sprang up and scrambled to grab his shirt. "Who is it?" he asked irritably.

To his relief, Laito was the one that answered. "Just me. Can I come in?"

Kanato sighed. He could be a little more comfortable around Laito, for one reason or another. He grabbed his shirt and put it on anyway, and he threw his binder under the bed before he told Laito he could come in.

As soon as Laito entered, he sat down on the floor with his back against Kanato's bed. "Do you hate Ruri?"

"Yes," Kanato answered simply. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"Why?"

"Teddy hates her too," Kanato explained, hugging Teddy tighter. "And Teddy's a good judge of character. Teddy doesn't understand why she's here, because we're not babysitters."

"Okay, but why do _you_ hate Ruri?"

Kanato's breathing was shaky. "I just don't like looking at her."

"Because she's a little girl?"

"Little girls make me so anxious," Kanato admitted. "They're so sensitive and pathetic. And they cry all the time. And what are they even good for? They look pretty and that's it. It pisses me off." His eyes were watering again.

Laito glanced up at him for a second, but quickly looked away because he knew Kanato didn't want to be looked at right now. "I think I understand what you're saying." That is, Laito understood _why_ Kanato was saying that.

"Right? I bet Christa didn't even want a girl. Because, when you think about it, there's no chance of Subaru getting married, and Subaru is Christa's only chance of passing on the family name."

Laito laughed a little. Poor Subaru. "I think you should try to be a little nicer to her. It's not her fault she can't pass on the family name."

"But she's taking up space." Kanato hiccupped and tried to wipe away the tears again, but they wouldn't stop. "This is a house full of boys that have futures and they're gonna end up successful people. One of us is gonna be the Vampire King someday. All she's doing is taking up space. It's not like she can be King. She's a girl."

Laito spoke gently. "But she's a person, and she can work hard and be successful too. She just needs a little time. She isn't a waste of space."

"She is, she is! She's just like a wind-up doll. Or a music box." Kanato spoke gravely, but it was hard to keep his voice steady while he was crying. "She's gonna look pretty and she's gonna do pretty things, and that's all. Nothing else."

Laito turned and propped his elbows up on the bed, looking into Kanato's face. "I doubt she's content with only looking pretty. So let's teach her to do something different." Kanato stared at him with wide eyes. "If we can teach her something else then she won't be a waste of space, right?"

"I guess."

"And if it takes her a little while to learn, then you can try to be patient with her, right?"

Kanato hesitated. "…I guess," he said again.

"Because sometimes it takes people a little time to work themselves out."

"I know," Kanato said miserably.

Laito smiled at him. "You'll give her a chance?"

"I suppose so. Teddy says you ought to get out of my room now, before I change my mind."

Laito grinned and stood up. "I'm sure she'll love you, Kanato!"

Kanato narrowed his teary eyes at him. "It doesn't make a difference whether she loves me or not…I just want her to have a future as something other than a toy." He realized that he spoke too honestly. "Didn't I tell you to get out?"

Laito finally complied, leaving Kanato alone. Kanato spoke softly. "Teddy…What do you think of sentimental people like that?" Kanato waited a while for Teddy to respond, and then he laughed airily. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm even more sentimental."

Laito returned to see how Ayato was doing with Ruri. Ruri was clutching a tissue in her hands, which he presumed she had been using to wipe her face, but she was smiling. Ayato noticed Laito enter and he grinned excitedly at him.

"Did you make her laugh?" Laito asked.

"Yeah! We tried making a house of cards, but I knocked it over. But that's okay, because she thought it was hilarious when it fell over. So we built it up again and kept knocking it down."

Laito laughed. "That's so…" He paused, and noticed Ayato's proud smile. "That's so nice."

"Heh, yeah. What can I say? Kids love me," Ayato bragged.

Laito laughed, and cast a glance towards the hallway that led to Kanato's room. Things seemed to be going pretty well.

 **(A/N: That was longer than I expected it to be, lmao…If you plan on continuing to read this story after finding out that Kanato is a trans boy, thank you so much! And if you don't, that's okay, just please don't leave any hateful comments. (/_\\) I planned on only hinting at the fact that Kanato is a trans boy, but I ended up making it super obvious lol…Next chapter, we'll find out why Ruri doesn't talk. And it'll be a Reiji/Shu chapter. Till next time!)**


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N: It's been 3000 years…**

 **Descriptions of drowning in this chapter!)**

Shu had tried his best to take Edgar's advice and stay out of Reiji's way for now. There was inevitably a time, though, when their relationship reached a boiling point. Even when ignoring each other, they got fed up with each other.

This time came one day when Shu had to creep into the room where Reiji was studying, and he asked to borrow a particular book. Reiji smartly responded that Shu couldn't borrow it, because if he gave it to Shu then Shu would just rip the pages out. Shu shouted at him that he _didn't do that_ , and he wished he would stop accusing him of doing that, because he _didn't_. They shouted at each other for a while, before Shu grabbed the book and stormed out. Reiji, of course, followed him.

"Where are you going with that?! Give it back!"

"It belongs to me anyway, since I'm the oldest! I only let you use them because I'm so kind."

"No, they belong to Mother, and if Mother gave them to me then they're mine!"

"No, all the books in this house are for me, because I'm studying to be king."

That really made Reiji mad. Shu walked as briskly as he could, gripping the book tightly.

"But you don't study to be king, you go out and play all the time! I'm the one who really studies, and besides that book is mine!'

"It's mine and I can do what I want with it."

"You can't! I'll tell Mother!"

"If you tell her that I'm reading a book, she won't care, because that's what the books are for. They're for me to read. Besides, she wouldn't listen to you no matter what you say."

Shu fastwalked outside, where a couple of his brothers were playing. Laito, Kanato, and Subaru were in a small circle, and in the middle was a cage with a bat in it. They were taking turns feeding it (well, Subaru was passing his turn every time because he was kind of afraid to touch it).

Shu called out to them. "Guys, let's go play down by the lake!"

Kanato looked up. "Why would we want to go to such a dirty place?"

"Because, I have something cool to show you."

"Shu!" Reiji called after him. His voice was high-pitched and upset-sounding. "You better stop! You're not supposed to leave without permission!"

Shu went right on, ignoring Reiji. This intrigued the others, so they got up and followed after him. The promise of seeing the cool thing Shu had in mind was pretty tempting too. Laito and Kanato looked sadly back at the mansion, wishing that Ayato could come with them. Ayato _loved_ cool things. But unfortunately, he was in the middle of a lesson, and there was nothing they could do.

The Sakamaki brothers minus Ayato followed Shu down to the lake - even Reiji followed, in the interest of getting his book back. It wasn't a very long walk, but in fairness, some of them (Subaru) had very short legs and some of them (Subaru) were terrified of new places in general. And upon arriving, the lake was exactly as terrifying as he thought it would be: The whole area was dark and somewhat crowded, and the trees kept rustling with the sounds of owls and bats. It seemed to him that the lake went on forever, and it was impossible to see the bottom. And it was cold.

Kanato was shivering, and he pulled on Shu's sleeve. "Can't you show us what it is so we can go home?"

Shu looked down at his little brother. "Are you cold?"

"Yes."

"Then, let's make a bonfire."

Reiji got deathly quiet for a moment, and then hissed, " _Shu-_ "

Shu placed the book down on the ground, and stepped back. He told everyone else to stand back too, and they all obliged. Subaru backed up into the lake - he was up to his ankles in water now, and it was icy cold, but he stayed there because Shu had told him to stand back. Shu put his hands up and pointed them towards the book.

Reiji was furious, and his body didn't know what to do with all that anger. He stamped his foot on the ground. "Shu, you better not! I'll seriously tell Mother! And you can't, even if you wanted too, because you're too young! You'll never be able to- Shu, please don't! It's _mine_!"

"Shut up! You've been nagging at me for ages now. This book isn't yours, and I can do what I want to. And what I want to do is use my powers on it. It's practice, for when I become king."

"You can't! You can't! Shu, you're the worst; I hate you!"

Shu dropped his hands, glaring at Reiji. "Well, I hate you too! I wish you were dead!"

"I wish you weren't born! Give it back, give it back to me, it's mine!"

Subaru was watching them with wide eyes, silently committing everything they said to memory. Every part of the scene: the dark forest, the shadows over Shu and Reiji's faces, and the icy feeling creeping up his legs. Shu and Reiji were using words that he had heard his mother say before. It was scary.

"I'm going to do what I want," Shu shouted at him. "And I'll make you sorry you said those things to me!" Shu raised his hands to the book again. Reiji screamed at him to stop, and Subaru turned and ran - he didn't know exactly where he was running, but he had to get away from them as quickly as possible.

There was a loud _bang_ sound accompanied by a flash of light, the screams of Laito and Kanato, and a splash.

The blast had sent Subaru face-first into the water. He took a quick breath in, and choked on the freezing water. He wasn't really aware if his eyes were opened or closed - either way, all he could see was black. He could no longer tell which way was up. He had never been in a body of water so large before - he tried to scream but only heard his voice come out garbled and distorted by the water. He couldn't make a sound. _He couldn't breathe._

Shu heard the splashing and looked out to the lake, but he was temporarily blinded by the blast and he couldn't figure out what was happening. But he could hear Laito gasp out: "Subaru - Subaru?!"

There was more noise that Shu couldn't figure out - Reiji had tossed his glasses aside and dashed in the water to Subaru's rescue. He dragged Subaru out from the water; Subaru was clinging desperately to Reiji's waist, and his skin was paper white, and he was shivering violently and bawling out loud. He thought he was going to die.

Panicked, Shu started to rub his eyes and look around. He could make out Reiji staring directly at him, his small fangs bared, and a hateful look in his eye. Subaru had buried his face in Reiji's side, and he was crying his eyes out. They were both soaked.

"Look what you did," Reiji breathed. "You really all the worst! We'd all be better off if you weren't here!" Subaru peeked out from where he had been hiding his face in Reiji's shirt, looking at Shu with a horrified expression. Laito and Kanato, too, were staring at Shu as if he were some kind of monster, and they were holding each other's hands tightly to protect each other.

The book remained on the ground, with the spine bent and the cover nearly blown clean off. Ashes were scattered near it, and the red glow of embers were flickering on the pages.

The next time Shu went to go play with Edgar, Edgar could tell that his friend was clearly upset over something. Since he had a good guess of what it could be, he asked directly: "How are things going with your brother?"

Shu took a deep, shaky breath. "We had a fight."

Edgar stopped in the middle of their hike, and sat with his back against a tree. He patted the ground next to him, motioning for Shu to sit down next to him. Shu looked down at his smiling face, feeling his face flush somewhat, and he sat down next to him. He needed some reassurance that someone didn't hate him, so he leaned against Edgar's shoulder, and felt immense relief when Edgar put at arm around him.

"Do you wanna tell me what happened?"

Shu tried to breathe steady before starting his story. "R-Reiji- I went into his room...to borrow a book, and...he didn't want-" Shu sniffled. "He didn't want me to take it, so I- I just took it, and…" Shu couldn't keep going. Tears were rolling down his cheeks and he couldn't get the words out.

Edgar wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. "All right, big guy. Cry all you want." Shu took him up on that offer, and cried into his shoulder. He could feel Edgar's rough hands rubbing his back.

"I wish you were my brother, Shu. You care so much."

"No, you don't…"

Even if he weren't crying, he wouldn't be able to tell Edgar what happened. Everyone else already hated him - he wouldn't be able to handle it if Edgar hated him too. Even if he had to keep all of the horrible things a secret, even if he were lying to him, he just couldn't take it if Edgar hated him too. Edgar might be the only person left who didn't hate him.

But, as we all know, even Edgar didn't last long. Shu found himself alone sooner than he thought.

 **xxx**

Ruri's muteness was growing intolerable for nearly every member of the family, except Shu, because he hardly talked to anyone in the first place. Shu thought Ruri was an absurdly nice girl because she would bring him his plate of dinner every day without being asked. She had presumably noticed that everyone else had a tendency to forget about Shu, and that Shu never bothered to get food himself, so she had made up her mind to get it for him. Shu was a vampire and he didn't need to eat human food, but he had to appreciate the gesture because she was a little kid and she didn't know any better.

Ruri didn't speak to him but she would wave her hand to Shu sometimes, like she was saying hello, and at first Shu didn't wave back, but eventually he started to. He still thought kids were troublesome, but he had to admit that she was pretty cute, going through all this effort to interact with him even though he never interacted back. And in the past, Shu had five little brothers that were once her age, and Shu couldn't help but think of them when he saw her.

So, naturally, Shu started to get worried about her.

"How have you been keeping her fed?" he asked Reiji (who seemed unpleasantly surprised at the fact that Shu had initiated a conversation with him).

But Reiji wanted to seem responsible, so he dutifully replied, "I've captured a human to supply her with blood. You can rest assured that she's not starving. Though I don't see why you would care. Unless you're trying to insinuate that I'm that cruel?"

Shu ignored that last part. "A living human…? In our house?" He definitely hadn't noticed one. What would Ruri do if she saw it, acting like a terrified hostage?

"It's very out of the way, I assure you."

"What if she sees it? Won't she be frightened?"

Reiji only repeated, "It's out of the way."

Shu dropped it there. But he couldn't get it out of his head, and he started to imagine that he was hearing the faint sounds of chains clinking and a voice groaning for help. He ignored it, convincing himself that he was only imagining it, but in the middle of the day while everyone was asleep, he became positive that he wasn't imagining it. The human must be somewhere in the basement, probably chained up and being drained of her blood daily, for Ruri's sake. He was sure that it would be a horrifying sight for a young girl, so he decided to interrogate her.

The next time she appeared by his side to deliver his plate of dinner, Shu sat up and asked her very seriously, "Do you hear anything?"

She didn't respond.

"It's okay, just nod yes or no. Do you hear something scary? Or something that you can't explain?"

Ruri stiffened a little, but didn't answer. She started to rub her forearm with one hand. Shu noticed she was covered with bruises.

Reiji passed by the living room and paused. He said Shu and Ruri apparently engaged in conversation, which was _not_ a welcome sight. "What are you two talking about?" he asked in a low voice.

Shu looked over to him. "I wouldn't call it talking...She isn't saying anything."

"Of _course_ she isn't," Reiji grumbled. He approached Ruri and ordered her to sit down while pointing to the couch, and she did so. "Young lady, I can't blame you for remaining silent around this person but you really ought to answer the question. It's only polite to answer. Do I need to repeat myself?"

She stared blankly up at him.

" _Do I need to repeat myself_?" Reiji was clearly starting to get frustrated. Shu didn't blame him, because he was aware that Reiji had spent hours each day trying to get Ruri to speak to him. Still, Ruri wasn't budging.

"You're going to be sorry if you don't say something," Shu mumbled to her as a warning. She did not take her eyes off of Reiji.

"Can't you just make one little sound for once in your life? For goodness sake, it's disrespectful! It's - I've-" Reiji's face flushed. "I've never even heard your voice!"

She only seemed to be slightly aware of the fact that Reiji was yelling at her. Shu was struck with the thought that maybe she _wasn't_ aware after all. He decided to test this theory.

"Ruri, over here." He waved his hand to get her attention, and she hesitantly waved back. "Okay, listen, follow my instructions. Like, err...Like it's a game."

Reiji glared at him for interrupting with whatever nonsense this was. "What are you doing?"

Shu did not explain himself - he maintained eye contact with Ruri. "Okay, it's a really easy game. Just do what I tell you to do. Understand?" He didn't wait for her to respond, because he knew she wouldn't. "Okay, uh...Hold up two fingers."

Ruri did so, awaiting her next order.

"Good, that's good. Okay, now five fingers." Ruri paused a little bit to think, then held up five. Reiji was only getting more confused. "Okay, now cover your eyes like this." Shu covered his eyes with his hands, and Ruri copied him.

"Good, now uncover your eyes."

Ruri didn't do anything.

"Ruri? You can take your hands off now."

Nothing.

Shu reached out and gently grabbed Ruri's wrists, removing her hands for her. He didn't let go, holding onto them as he asked his next question: "You can't hear me, can you?" Ruri tilted her head at him. Reiji noticed that, from such a close distance, she stared at Shu's lips whenever he spoke.

She was trying to read his lips. She was doing poorly, since she was so young, which explained why she only seemed to understand short, simple sentences.

Reiji remained dumbstruck as it sunk in, then he started talking fast immediately. "We have to get her to a doctor. Or organize sign language classes. No, sign language won't help her, because none of her family can use it. Speech therapy is what she needs. Or surgery. Could we organize surgery within the week? They use implants these days, don't they? Do you think she'll need hearing aids? Oh, God, I've-" Reiji put a hand to his forehead. The past few days of disciplining her were rushing back to him. All of the times he had struck her for not responding. "She's been deaf this whole time. I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner. I can't believe I-"

"Reiji." Shu's voice stopped Reiji dead in his tracks. He sounded calm enough to affect Reiji with his calmness. "Everything's fine. It's not like she's going to die."

"You don't understand," Reiji said desperately. "What use does Karl Heinz have for a little deaf girl?"

That was a scary thought. Shu slowly released Ruri's hands, and she folded them in front of her politely. "...We should have a doctor look at her, at least," he admitted.

Reiji grabbed Ruri's hand and led her off the couch, and towards the door. He was still talking to himself. "Surgery will take too long anyway; she'll have to be back home in less than a week. Not to mention she'll be terrified and she'll surely make a scene. Hearing aids might be no good because you can see them, and if our father finds out...Where are you going?"

Shu had started to follow him. "...I was going to go too."

" _You're_ coming?" he asked, skeptical. Reiji did not see him as the doting brother type.

Shu understood why he was confused and he struggled to explain. "It's just...she's really little...and I want you to keep her feelings in mind too. So I want to come keep an eye on things." God, he felt ridiculously embarrassed, caring about some girl like this.

Reiji narrowed his eyes at him. "You've gotten awfully soft." He turned away. "If you want to help, grab her a snack or something to keep her entertained."

Shu didn't move. His fear of fire usually kept him out of the kitchen, and he wasn't even sure what kind of snacks he meant anyway...He didn't even know what Ruri liked.

"..."

Reiji rolled his eyes. "Oh, you're hopeless." He ushered Ruri towards Shu and headed off to the kitchen himself. He returned shortly with a bag of marshmallows, thinking that it would suffice for a hospital trip.

Shu cocked his head. "Where did you get those?" Their family had never had something like marshmallows in the house before. Even Kanato didn't prefer them because they were a pain to eat with fangs.

Reiji seemed hesitant to answer. "Ruri went shopping with me and she seemed interested in these, so…" He shook his head and grabbed Ruri's hand again, heading for the door. "Let's go."

A small smile appeared on Shu's face. "And I'm the soft one," he said under his breath.

The process of finding an acceptable solution to Ruri's situation extended over a few days, and Shu insisted on joining each day. They had to buy multiple packs of marshmallows to keep her occupied.

Ruri had been deathly afraid of the doctor's office. It was full of strangers, and lots of strong smells, and people kept touching her and sticking things in her ears. She looked like she wanted to cry, but she had made up her mind not to cry in public (it always made her mother look so concerned), so she fought back tears the best she could. She couldn't calm down, even in the waiting room, unless she was holding Reiji's hand, or Shu's hand, or preferably both.

The doctor (who was not affiliated with Karl Heinz's hospital ring, lest he find out what they were up to) had diagnosed that Ruri was not profoundly deaf, but only hard of hearing. A hearing aid would suffice, and that fact disqualified her from having surgery in the first place, much to Reiji's relief. She got a hearing aid in the form of an earpiece, and a rectangular microphone that she wore around her neck. A test measuring how many beeping noises she could identify proved that the hearing aid improved her ability to pick up sounds considerably, but oftentimes one had to speak directly into the microphone for her to understand what they were saying. The doctor reassured them that hearing aids just took time to get used to, especially for kids.

Of course Reiji had to be the first person to try it. When he had the microphone in his hands, he cleared his throat and spoke into it after some deliberation. "Ruri?"

Ruri had been sitting up straight to begin with, but she straightened her spine as soon as she heard her name.

"Is it all right?"

Ruri didn't really know how to respond, but her eyes had lit up. She looked from Reiji to Shu to Reiji again, wanting to convey her excitement, but not knowing how to do so. Then she started to laugh.

She thought her brothers' voices were funny. Every time Reiji spoke in particular, she started giggling and couldn't stop. She was still giggling when they left the doctor's office, holding the microphone around her neck in one hand and Reiji's forefinger in the other. Reiji didn't get what was so funny, but he was oddly satisfied knowing that his voice made her happy. He made it a point to talk more often on the way home.

When she got home, she showed off her hearing aid and microphone to Laito as if they were fashion accessories. Laito acted impressed and told her how good she looked with them.

While hearing Reiji's voice put her in a giggly mood, Ayato's voice was the funniest thing in the world to her. Practically every time Ayato opened his mouth, she would crack up to the point where she could hardly stand up straight. Ayato loved this - he loved making her laugh, so he put on as many different voices as possible till she was laughing so hard, she had tears in her eyes. Kanato happened to walk in when Ayato was speaking in a high-pitched voice, which was making Ruri laugh till she cried. Kanato walked out immediately.

So Ruri could finally hear everyone, at least to a certain extent, but of course that didn't mean that she could immediately speak fluently. She could hear the sounds, but she was unsure of how to produce them. Now that he knew that her inability to speak was a result of never hearing anyone else speak, Reiji started to teach her less strictly and the bruises on her arms gradually disappeared. And she started showing results.

Reiji had said before that she didn't need sign language (considering that no one else could use it), but Shu couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if her microphone ran out of batteries or if she lost her hearing aid, so he started to read a book on sign language and taught Ruri some basic signs too. She picked them up easily, because she already had a tendency to copy his hand motions. Frankly, Shu thought learning the signs was really bothersome, but he was already used to reading books in his spare time so he figured he could deal with it. And besides, Ruri was his only sibling that still actively spent time and interacted with him. Shu had forgotten what it was like to have a doting younger sibling. He didn't want Ruri to hate him.

The first time Ruri ever used her own voice to communicate outside of speech lessons was with Subaru. She had attempted to open his door without knocking again, and he grudgingly opened it for her. He had been locked up in his room ignoring everyone as per usual, so he hadn't seen the hearing aid yet and wasn't quite sure what it was. Ruri took the microphone off her neck and offered it to Subaru, silently urging him to take it.

Since it was rectangular and it didn't really look like a microphone, Subaru took it and examined it, trying to figure out what it was. Ruri was excitedly waiting for him to speak. Finally, Subaru said, "What do you want me to do with this?"

Ruri squealed in excitement and clapped her hands together, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. With this, she had finally heard all the voices of her brothers, and Subaru was probably the most important because she had known him since he was a baby. Ruri reached out to take the microphone back, and Subaru (who was only confused by all this) offered it to her. But she grasped his hand instead, very tightly, with both of her much smaller hands.

She took a deep breath. "Th- Tha-nk y-ou."

Her voice stuttered and rose irregularly, but she seemed proud of herself for saying it. Then she took the microphone back and put it around her neck, and headed off. It took a moment for Subaru to recover from the shock.


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N: THIS CHAPTER'S LONG AS SHIT I'M SORRY...Descriptions of torture in this chapter. Please stay safe!)**

When vampires are children and their fangs are not fully developed, the servants would usually capture a human and routinely drain blood from it in order to feed them. The kids typically did not question where this blood came from, they just drank it like juice from a cup. They hardly realized it was blood at all.

Subaru knew, because Kanato had told him.

Whenever Subaru felt like he needed comforting, he would go to the tunnels underground and sit by the rushing water. No one would ever go look for him there, and he could cry openly and as loudly as he wanted. But he tried to keep his voice down, because if he was quiet, he could hear Kanato singing from the surface.

It was a light and pleasant sound that reverberated off the walls of the underground tunnels, and Subaru couldn't always make out the lyrics, but just the sound of the changing tones was enough to calm him. If it was a familiar song, he would hum along quietly, around his sniffles and sighs.

He was almost always singing, at any time of day. But it wasn't always the same day-to-day. There were times when it was lighthearted and energetic, and times when it was a slow and sorrowful drawl. There were other times where his usually angelic voice came out raspy and hoarse, as if on the verge of collapse. Like a puppet whose strings had all been cut except for one, and he was now hanging precariously on that last string as if his life depended on it. He never stopped singing, no matter how painful it sounded.

Kanato was tortured by something. Subaru did not know what, and he did not know how. But he could tell from Kanato's singing voice. Kanato had seen things, he had experienced things that Subaru could not understand. It intimidated Subaru, so he tried to avoid being around Kanato often, except for when he was listening to him sing.

It was on one of those days where Kanato's voice sounded like it was about to die out. When Subaru had finished up recovering from within the tunnels, he came back outside to head for the tower. On his way, he felt a cold hand touch his arm. He turned around to see Kanato's big, empty eyes staring at him.

"Subaru, did you know? There are humans in this place."

Subaru stiffened. That couldn't be true. He had never met a single human, in all of his years of living in this place.

His lips broke into a small yet sadistic smile. "They keep them down in the basement. Then they stick things in their skin and take out their blood. It must be incredibly painful."

Subaru whimpered. Kanato was scaring him. "No they don't. Stop lying."

"And then we _drink_ that blood."

"Stop it!"

"It's true! You and me," Kanato's eyes were wide. "We're incredibly cruel. It's especially cruel that we didn't even know. Don't you agree?"

Subaru wanted to run away. He didn't like Kanato's hand touching him, or Kanato's eerie eye contact. He felt his shoulders shake.

"What is it? What are you thinking right now?"

Before Subaru could think about it, he answered honestly, as if Kanato had put some sort of spell on him: "I was thinking that I like you much better when you're singing."

"It's funny," Kanato responded in a monotone. "Everyone says that."

 **xxx**

The date in which Ruri was supposed to return home was rapidly approaching. Everybody felt, in one way or another, that they might miss her at least a little bit, but Laito and Ayato were the only ones to vocalize their thoughts.

"I'm gonna be so bored," Ayato groaned. He was sprawled out on the couch in the living room, so he was taking up one and Shu was taking up the other. Laito was sitting on another chair, intently watching Ruri play. Ruri was on the floor, sorting through a deck of cards and putting them into little piles based on their suit, for some reason. "That little dork laughs at all of my jokes."

"Even the ones that aren't funny?" Laito said with a smile.

"Screw you, all my jokes are funny. Right, kid?"

"Yes, sir," Ruri responded, looking up briefly from her work. Her voice still sounded slightly off when she tried to talk, but she had rehearsed that phrase enough times to say it without a problem. Ayato offered her a goofy smile and she giggled at him. At this point, she associated Ayato's face with something funny.

Ayato looked proud of himself. "She gets it."

Seeing his brother and sister get along so well made him happy, but Laito had something that had been weighing on his mind for some time now. He sighed. "I get what you mean, though...I wish Ruri could stay here…"

"I doubt she likes it here," Shu mumbled from the other couch without opening his eyes.

Laito tilted his head, giving Shu a somewhat worried smile. "Don't be silly, she smiles all the time. Ayato's practically her favorite person ever." Ayato sat up a little straighter and grinned to himself. "She's gotta be bored out of her mind at home."

Kanato's voice spoke up as he appeared at the staircase. "I imagine next time we see her, she won't laugh so much."

At once, the smile on Laito's face disappeared. Kanato was probably right. In fact, Laito had known from the beginning that Ruri's childish innocence wouldn't last. Karl Heinz's manor simply wasn't a good place to be a child. But he had gotten caught up in the fun of having a sister, and he had forgotten that he would more or less lose her soon.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room, but naturally Ruri hadn't noticed, since things were usually borderline silent for her anyway. She gave a salute-like sign to Kanato when she saw him, and then showed him a card.

Kanato stepped a bit closer, looking unamused. He tolerated her now, but he still hadn't quite opened up to his little sister. "It's a joker. What about it?"

"What...kind?"

"Don't be stupid. There's only one kind of joker, and there's no such thing as a joker of spades or a joker of clubs. It's just a joker."

She was taking an awfully long time to think over her words. "Where…?"

Kanato sighed, and knelt down. He pointed to her different piles of cards. "You can't put it in any of these piles, because the joker is different. Make a separate pile for jokers." Ruri nodded in affirmation and placed the joker aside. Kanato went on to tell her, "There are only two jokers in a deck so it will be a small pile. And make sure you pick these up when you're done, got it?" Ruri nodded again. "If you don't, then there will be a mess, and no one likes messy kids."

"Even Kanato's being a proper big brother, huh…" Laito noticed.

Kanato chose to ignore him. "In any case, some of us will be seeing Ruri at parties and those sort of things. Since Ruri is the only daughter, I would imagine she'll attend all of them."

Laito turned pale.

"To find a suitor, right?" Ayato made a disgusted face. "I don't really understand it, but I guess I remember that sort of thing when I was younger…" Ayato was referring to how Kanato used to be the "only daughter." He remembered finding some letters addressed to his mother that detailed some wedding proposals, and he had a good laugh about it.

Kanato replicated his disgusted expression. Those were uncomfortable memories for him. "Poor thing. So young and already a trophy wife."

"No, no, no, no," Laito jumped in. "No, no. She's just a child."

"She's not just a child, she's the daughter of Karl Heinz as well as Tougo Sakamaki," Kanato reminded him. "She's worth a lot. Aren't you, Ruri?" It was a cruel question to ask a child, and Kanato knew it.

Ruri looked up at him and said "Yes, sir" exactly as she rehearsed. Even though she didn't understand what he was saying. Kanato felt a little guilty for asking her that, especially when he knew exactly how she would respond.

"No, no, she's not getting married anytime soon!" Laito insisted. "She can barely tie her own shoes. You're being ridiculous."

"I'm not saying she'll be _married_ anytime soon, but it's only a matter of time before she's _engaged_ -"

Laito cried out in horror. "Ruri, come here and sit with your big brother!" he pleaded to her. The microphone picked it up so she heard him, but she had some trouble figuring out where his voice was coming from for a brief moment. She glanced around the room before she finally spotted Laito and recognized his voice. Then she did as she was told and climbed on the armchair, sitting snugly next to him. "Ruri, you don't like boys, right? Don't you know that they have cooties? You're gonna stay away from them, right?" and Ruri responded "yes sir" every time.

"Even if she says that, it's that man's decision," Kanato reminded him. Laito grew even more distraught, and Ayato scoffed.

"If Ruri gets married, we'll have a brother-in-law. How gross will that be?"

"Truly gross," Kanato answered.

Shu suddenly spoke up. "That man is throwing a birthday party for her at the end of the week."

There was a brief moment of silence, and then Laito leapt out of his seat. "When's her birthday?!"

"June 12th."

"That - That's - What day is today?!"

"...Uh...The seventh, I think."

Laito looked mortified. "Then it's five days away?!"

"That's how math works, usually."

"Oh my gosh, I didn't know! Does _Ruri_ even know? I need to get a present! Oh, geez, I'm broke - And you said there was going to be a party? Why would that creep throw a party…?!"

"You know why," Kanato commented. "To find a suitor."

"Agh! Shu, why didn't you tell us sooner?!"

Shu shrugged.

Ayato looked thoughtful and then spoke up. "Do you think we're invited…?"

"Subaru is expected to go," Shu went on. "Because he's her blood brother."

"Ahh...Subaru isn't gonna like it," Ayato sighed. "Especially if he has to go alone."

Ruri perked up at the mention of Subaru's name. She seemed to want to say something, but didn't quite have the words to express it. "Suba-aru is…"

Laito frowned. "Subaru doesn't talk to you a lot, does he?"

"No. He...is…" Ruri looked towards the staircase, and a sad look crossed her face.

"He needs a lecture from his own big bro," Ayato announced, jumping out of his chair.

"Ayato, no...You got punched in the face last time."

"It would've hurt more if Ruri had hit me," Ayato said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "And if we don't force him out of his room, he's never gonna know his own sister. Then he can't protect her from the suitstors at her birthday party."

"Suitors," Shu corrected him.

"That's what I said."

Laito looked worried, but the idea of Ruri getting engaged next week was even more terrifying, so he figured it would be smart to get Subaru and Ruri to become closer. "...Okay, Ruri. Do you want to see Subaru?"

Ruri's face lifted. "Yes, sir."

Ayato didn't need to be told twice. He bolted off towards his younger brother's room. It was a matter of minutes before he returned, dragging a protesting Subaru by the arm.

Subaru glared darkly at Shu, because Ayato had made it sound like this was all Shu's fault. " _What?_ "

Shu couldn't be bothered to explain the situation, so Laito stepped up to Subaru's other side and linked arms with him. "Hey, Subaru! If you don't leave your room every once in a while then you'll get sick, you know?"

Subaru growled, "Why are you touching me?"

"Fresh air is what you need! Right, Ayato?"

"Right, right. What he said. You can't be a hermit forever."

The two of them started dragging Subaru towards the front door. Subaru's eyes widened and he started to fight back. "Hey! Where the hell are you taking me?! Let go-!"

Ruri looked at Kanato because she didn't know what to do. Kanato pointed towards the other three and said, "Follow them. Subaru's going to take you for a walk."

Ruri nodded. "Tha-nk you," she said quickly before running towards the other three.

Ayato and Laito kicked Subaru out of the house and Ruri obediently joined him. Laito said cheerfully, "Have her home before morning or there will be consequences!" and slammed the door.

Subaru shouted some words that Ruri didn't know, shoved his hands in his pockets, and stormed away. Ruri had much smaller legs, so she had to jog to keep up with him.

It wasn't like Subaru to try to be nice to anybody, but he had known Ruri since she was an infant, so he couldn't exactly be _mean_ to her. Besides, Christa really seemed to love her, so Subaru didn't want to take his anger out on her if he could help it. He didn't like it, but for the time being he would have to put on a big brother act after all.

"...How are you doing?" he grunted, keeping his eyes straight ahead.

He could hear her breathing quickly as she struggled to catch up. "I am well. How - How are you?"

"Peachy," he responded sarcastically.

"I - miss - you."

Subaru nearly stopped in his tracks when he heard that, but he was so frustrated that he kept on walking out of pure anger alone. His plan was to just keep walking until she got tired and gave up. After all, she's never had much exercise in her life, being cooped up with her mother and all. "You've missed me? But I've been here."

Ruri was taking a lot of time to put her sentences together. That only annoyed Subaru even more (though he could kind of relate). "Suba-aru...does not eat...w-with us."

"Because I don't want to."

"Do you - eat?"

Subaru quickened his pace. "Not usually."

"Why…" She paused to catch her breath. "...not?"

"Vampires don't need to, so it's a waste of time. You'll understand when you're older."

"Yes, sir."

For some reason, her response pissed him off. "And another thing that'll happen when you're older. You'll stop with all the stupid sentimental crap. You won't care whether or not we eat together."

"Subaru."

He ignored her and went on, taking bigger strides to widen the gap between the two of them. It was too easy to be cruel to her. Because all she said was yes sir, yes sir, like a talking doll. "But then again, you'll be with my mother. You won't give a damn about whether or not your brothers are eating at all. She'll be braiding your stupid hair all day, probably, but that's not going to last forever either."

"Subaru-"

"You just wait, you're gonna see her at her worst someday. She's gonna snap and cut all your hair off and tell you she hates you. She'll regret even giving birth to you." Subaru suddenly started to laugh, and he walked even faster. "No, I'm just kidding myself! I only _wish_ that would happen! But she loves you too much to do that! God dammit…!"

"Subaru, I c...can't hear you." She ran to catch up, and tugged on the hem of his shirt. He looked down and realized she was holding the rectangular box she wore around her neck up to him. "Please w-wear this around your neck."

Subaru stared at it for a while, and then very slowly took it out of her hands.

As he was putting it on, Ruri was going through some more lines she had rehearsed. They sounded mechanical and she wasn't used to the pronunciation yet. "I am hard of hearing and that mi- mi-...microphone...helps me to understand you. Can you please repeat what you said?"

Subaru blinked at her, and then looked away. "No. It wasn't important."

They were both silent after that, and Subaru walked at a much slower pace that Ruri could easily keep up with. After a while, he asked, "Do you miss home?"

Ruri had apparently thought about it before, because she responded immediately. "Yes, sir."

"I'm not a sir," Subaru mumbled.

"...Yes ma'am…?"

"Just Subaru is fine." He went on. "What do you think of us?"

Subaru feared that that may have been too abstract of a question for a child like her, but she responded fairly well. "I think you are all n-nice."

"But you miss home?"

There was a brief silence, and then Ruri's voice rose to a whimper. "I miss Mother."

Subaru had a few things he could tell her, but he held his tongue. Somehow his words held more weight now that he was speaking into a microphone. "Me too," he said, sounding a bit uncomfortable. He had never said something like that out loud before.

It was too late to console her. "I r-really...miss her." She balled her hands into fists.

"Don't you dare start crying. I'll leave you here."

"No! Don't…!" She was already crying.

Subaru sighed and waited for her to cry it out. Ruri was a quiet crier (much the opposite of Subaru), so at least he didn't have a screaming kid on his hands. As she sniffled, he started to rummage around in his pockets for a tissue.

"A-A-And," Ruri went on through sniffles and hiccups. She was finding it difficult to cry and talk at the same time. "It - It is scary...t-to sleep in a big bed."

Subaru stopped walking and forced the tissue into her hands. Ruri blew her nose. "...This is the first time you've slept alone, huh," he observed in a low voice. "If you were scared, why didn't you tell someone?"

"T-Tell...who?"

That was a good point. Subaru hesitated, then awkwardly patted her head. "Tell you what. If you're _very quiet_ , tonight you can sleep in my room." He was embarrassed to say stupid stuff like that, but he wanted her to stop crying already. "And then you'll see Mother in just a few days."

"I th-thought she left me forever…"

"No way. She went on vacation. She'll be back before your birthday." He had figured that someone would have explained that to her already, but he had apparently figured wrong. Even if she had hearing aids now, they still had a lot of work to do on communication.

"Rea-lly?" She sniffled.

"Yeah. So quit crying."

Ruri very hesitantly took hold of Subaru's hand. Subaru wanted to yank his hand away on instinct, but he figured he could sacrifice his pride for just a little longer. As long as his brothers didn't see.

She had more or less stopped crying. "When are _we_ going on vacation?"

"I dunno...Whenever the old man decides we should go somewhere."

"Where do you...want to go?"

"Nowhere, really. I would rather just stay home."

"Okay," she responded simply.

Subaru raised an eyebrow. "What about you?"

"Um...Nowhere. I would rather just-"

"Don't just copy what I said," Subaru interrupted. Ruri stopped talking, because that was exactly what she was going to do.

The two of them wrapped up their walk and headed home. Subaru made sure to release Ruri's hand before their brothers got a chance to see him doing something so girly. And, like he promised, he let Ruri sleep in his room. The whole ordeal was torture, but he would feel even worse if he kicked her out of his room, so he would just have to deal with it. Besides, she was very careful to be quiet so she wouldn't bother him. Subaru figured he didn't really mind having her around.

When daytime rolled around, Subaru fell asleep, but Ruri was a bit restless due to being in a new place. She thought she might get up to explore Subaru's room a bit, so she grabbed her hearing aids and turned the microphone back on. She heard a quiet clinking of metal, and a voice she didn't recognize, but she couldn't quite make out what it was saying. She snuck out to investigate.

Following the sounds was tough and she ended up going in circles for a while, but eventually she arrived at a big door that seemed to be the source of the clinking sound. She pushed it open with some difficulty and found a flight of stairs heading downwards. It was dark and she was a bit frightened of what might be down there, but her curiosity got the better of her so she ventured downwards.

The basement of the house would have been stiflingly dark for a human, but luckily Ruri was gifted with night vision and she could easily see that she was in some sort of medieval-style dungeon. There were a variety of tools around her that she didn't recognize, but they looked pretty dangerous so she decided to keep her hands off. As for what she could hear, the microphone around her neck picked up the sound of rushing water from somewhere further downwards, and...the sound of somebody breathing?

Just past some larger instruments of torture (mostly covered by tarps and thick layers of dust) she found a human being chained to the wall. Or at least, Ruri assumed it was a human being because it was vampire-shaped, but it smelled nothing like a vampire. The smell was...ethereally delicious. Ruri's mouth started watering. The human was female, and it was just as pale as Subaru, and its body language suggested that it was crying but unable to produce any tears.

"Please go away," she was sobbing, over and over. Apparently she had heard Ruri's footsteps and assumed it meant danger. "I can't handle it. I feel like I'm going to die. Please let me go."

Ruri cautiously approached. The human girl fixed her eyes on the shadow of Ruri's body, and strained to see her in the dark. Ruri examined the girl from a distance; she seemed to be (as far as Ruri could guess) a young adult around the age of 19 or 20, a brunette, with large gashes down her neck and smaller cuts on her forearms. The blood had dried, but the girl still looked as if she were on the verge of collapse. Despite this, Ruri couldn't help but think that she was a beautiful girl, and that she smelled _heavenly_.

"I'm seeing things," the girl kept crying. Apparently she had decided that the eerily quiet child in front of her was a hallucination. "I'm seeing things. Oh, I want to go home...Mom, Dad…"

So she wanted to see her mother too. Ruri suddenly turned around and dashed off, leaving the girl to continue moaning to herself. Ruri poked around the table full of strange tools and she found some big iron scissors (the word is "pliers" but Ruri didn't know that word) and she grabbed them, brushed the dust off, and headed back to the girl.

The girl took one look at the pliers and broke into hysterics, thinking that Ruri was going to remove her teeth with them or something. But instead, Ruri knelt down next to her and got to work trying to break the chains. It took a few tries, but eventually Ruri heard a _snap_ followed by the clatter of chains falling to the ground. The girl's left arm was free. With a small, victorious smile, Ruri moved on to the girl's left foot.

The girl, still delirious from blood loss, became vaguely aware that one arm was free. She stared at her shaking left hand and looked more closely at Ruri, who apparently wasn't a hallucination. "Who are you?"

While Ruri worked, she recited the introduction that Reiji had taught her: "My name is Ruri Sakamaki. I am the daughter of Tougo Sakamaki. It is a pleasure to meet your acqu...aintance." Reiji taught her to look up and smile when she said that, but Ruri was distracted at the moment. Another _snap_ , and the girl's left leg was free. Halfway there. Ruri moved over to her right side.

The girl looked bewildered. "Why are you doing this…?"

"To help you get home." _Snap_. Ruri had gotten the hang of this and she was working much faster now. "To see your mother."

"Thank you, Ruri," the girl sobbed. "Thank you."

Ruri managed to get the girl completely free, and though she was weak, she managed to stand and make her way out of the dark basement with Ruri's help. She had her arm around Ruri's shoulder, and Ruri was supporting her weight the best she could. They were at the front door and could see the sunlight streaming in past the curtains, and Ruri had to ask: "Is it true that humans sleep at nighttime?"

"What do you mean?"

"My mother told me that humans are awake during the day and that they sleep at nighttime. That's when we sleep. Doesn't the sunlight hurt your eyes?"

"What are you?" the girl asked in a trembling voice.

Ruri looked confused. "We're vampires," she said simply, staring up at the girl with her dull red eyes.

The girl cautiously took her hand off of Ruri's shoulder. "Thank you for saving me, Ruri," she stuttered. Then she turned her back to her and ran like hell out the door, and that was the last that Ruri ever saw of her.

She wondered what had spooked her so badly.


	8. Chapter 8

Whenever Kanato attended parties, he remained sandwiched between his bodyguards, Ayato and Laito.

Laito would hold his left hand, and Ayato would hold his right. Whenever people came up to them with the intention to talk to Kanato, Laito diverted their attention towards himself instead. If anyone looked at Kanato the wrong way, Ayato would shut them down. Once a little boy marched right up to Kanato and informed him, "My dad says that girls shouldn't cut their hair past their ears because it makes them look like boys," to which Ayato replied, "Do you want to die?"

They got in a lot of trouble, mostly for being antisocial at a social event, and for Ayato's careless threats (that very well could have caused a serious incident, if Ayato weren't so young, but he was forgiven on account of being about seven years old). But Ayato and Laito were devoted to the cause of protecting their brother. They could endure the punishments.

Kanato had to wear dresses at those parties too. There wasn't much they could do about that. He was unhappy about it, but tried not to complain because he knew Laito and Ayato were already trying so hard to minimize his discomfort. Of course they noticed, though.

"Hey," Ayato piped up in a whisper. "If it makes you feel better, I'll wear the dress when we get home. So you won't be the only boy whose gotta wear one."

"That's a great idea!" Laito added. "Good thinking, Ayato!"

Ayato beamed with pride, and Kanato's face flushed. "You don't have to do something like that…Seeing you uncomfortable won't make me feel any better."

The fact that they offered in the first place meant a lot to him, though. Kanato liked that they were thinking of him.

There were a lot of rules that Kanato had to follow that didn't apply to Laito and Ayato. He wasn't supposed to play roughly, or talk too loud because it might damage his singing voice, and he wasn't supposed to curse or sit with his legs apart. He had been scolded time and time again for getting his hands dirty while playing with his brothers. Kanato didn't see what the big deal was. Even if his hands got dirty, he could always just wash them.

He also wasn't allowed to stick up for himself at these parties, so Laito and Ayato came to his rescue.

Laito and Ayato had to act as Kanato's bodyguards because of one particular incident, the first party that they attended after Kanato cut his hair. There was one particular boy who managed to get alone with Kanato, and he bothered him till the point where Kanato was crying and begging his mother to take him home. Ayato took that boy outside and punched him right in the nose, leaving him bloody and crying harder than Kanato had been.

Nothing too bad had happened, but Kanato didn't sleep well that night. The issue had clearly affected him. Laito told Ayato that he ought to let Kanato sleep in the middle this time, so he would feel safer. Ayato usually wanted to sleep in the middle, but he agreed for Kanato's sake. It worked; Kanato felt much better between his two brothers

But Laito couldn't stay for long. Mother would be furious with him if he was late. So after Ayato had fallen asleep, snoring lightly and gripping onto Kanato's shirt, Laito tried to get out of bed as quietly as possible.

"Laito?"

Laito froze when he heard Kanato's voice. He turned around slowly, and saw Kanato sitting up on the bed, looking at him with a worried expression.

"Kanato...I thought you were asleep."

"Where are you going? Please stay here tonight, I need you here."

Laito's heart dropped immediately. It was an incredibly heavy feeling of guilt. He couldn't decide what was worse: the fact that he was leaving his brother in his time of need, or the fact that he needed to lie about it.

"I'm just going to get a drink of water," he said with a smile. "I'll be right back."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise. Go to sleep."

Kanato mumbled "okay" before snuggling back into bed, now facing Ayato, who was still sleeping soundly. Laito's smile faded from his face as he left the room.

He did not return for the rest of the night.

Laito wanted to make sure that this would never happen again.

 **xxx**

Ruri went back home. It was a few days before her birthday party. She hugged everybody goodbye, and used the signs for "goodbye" and "take care of yourself" that Shu taught her. Laito got a little bit teary-eyed, and as soon as she was out the door, he was hastily wiping his eyes. This could very well have been the last time he could see his sister, at least in her current innocent state. The little sister he had been praying for, the one that he spent all that time with, the one that he spoiled all week...she might have been gone.

The Sakamaki household settled down again.

Everybody was a little sad to see her leave, but Laito was by far the most torn up about it. He disappeared from the house for a while, off to go find something (or someone) to hold his attention for a while. He needed a distraction. When he did appear again, it was at Subaru's door.

"You know," he said in a friendly voice that made it very clear he was asking for something. "I was just wondering. You got an invitation to Ruri's birthday party, right?"

Subaru narrowed his eyes, thinking of the letter he had recently received from his mother. "...I guess. I don't know if you'd call it an invitation…"

"Oh that's great! I was just thinking, maybe I could see it for a second?"

Subaru glanced off to the side, remembering that time Reiji read a handwritten note from his mother. He had been so ashamed then, and he really didn't want to go through that process again. "You just want to know the time and place, right?"

Laito was all fake smiles. "Oh no! Why would I need to know that?"

"Something awful might happen if you try and crash it, you know."

"Crash it? Who, me?"

Subaru was getting sick of the innocent act, so he told Laito the time and place the party was being held. Laito (who had purposely brought a pen with him to record this information) scribbled the details onto this hand.

Before Laito left, he asked in a much quieter voice, "Do you want to see Ruri get engaged?"

"Hmph." Subaru looked away. "The sooner she's married off, the better."

Laito bit his lip, and then responded, "You thought she was just a burden at first."

"She _is_ a burden."

"I have to go to the party because I don't trust you to think about what's best for her. I need to protect her." Laito's next sentence sounded gravely serious. "Nobody should be in a relationship at her age."

Subaru scowled and shut the door on him, retreating back into his room.

A few days later, the day of the party arrived. Things didn't go quite as Laito had planned.

Subaru had to show up by order of his father, and he stood like a soldier by his mother the whole time. They both seemed to want to be wallflowers (Subaru desperately wanted to be left alone) but Christa was practically the center of attention on account of the fact that it was her daughter's first appearance in the public eye. She seemed...worn out, somehow, like she was straining herself. But she was able to put on a kind smile and greet her guests properly. Subaru was still keeping an eye on her, and trying to keep track of Ruri, too.

Laito had shown up uninvited, and he had dragged Kanato and Ayato along with him for backup. He was watching Ruri from afar like a hawk, staring down any boys who came near her.

"Guys!" Laito piped up all of a sudden, making his brothers jump. "Guys, guys, she's wearing the dress I bought her! Look, she looks so good in it, it really suits her…!"

"Don't make a fuss like that unless something is wrong," Ayato snapped.

"But you're right…" Kanato watched her with wide, thoughtful eyes. "She looks like a perfect little doll."

"Don't say creepy stuff like that. She looks like a girl wearing a dress," Ayato commented.

There were plenty of kids Ruri's age (and older) who had been told by their parents to go up and introduce to themselves. So in that sense, Ruri was getting a lot of attention. But hardly any of them looked truly interested in her. Her clothes were plain and not as expensive as any of the dresses the other young girls were wearing, and she had no clue how to talk to boys other than her brothers. She did a lot of nervous frowning and nodding. Many of them left her alone after greeting her.

There were two kids that remained with her. A girl about her own age, and a boy that looked about ten years older; around 16, if Laito had to guess. The boy looked like he wanted to leave Ruri like the rest of the kids did, but the girl was joined at the hip with her, and she apparently wouldn't let the boy (her brother?) leave. She was talking fast and vibrantly and Ruri was smiling with her.

"I like the way you keep your hair in braids," she said with a happy smile. She twisted her own dark hair between her fingers. "My hair's not quite long enough to do that. But if I grow it out a bit then maybe we can put our hair in braids together."

Ruri's cheeks were somewhat pink. She nodded enthusiastically.

"I like your necklace, too. All my necklaces are made of jewels but yours is unusual."

It wasn't a necklace, it was the microphone for Ruri's hearing aids, but she nodded again rather than correcting her.

"You don't talk too much but you seem like a really kind person. Do you want to be friends?"

"I do very much," Ruri responded, in full sincerity.

"You live here in this big castle? My house isn't nearly as big! But I have a big room filled with lots of stuffed animals."

Ruri looked mystified.

"Can I see your room?"

"Angelica, we have to go," the older boy complained.

"Hush!" she snapped back at him, making it abundantly clear that this was her older brother. "I just want to talk to Ruri!"

Ruri let them bicker, because she was too busy thinking long and hard about what to do next. She certainly wanted to show this girl Angelica to her room. But there was only one problem: Ruri did not have a room. Ruri lived with her mother, in a place that was much too cold and bare to be called someone's "room" in the first place. It was more like a cage. Ruri did not want this cute girl, who had grown up with a room filled with her own possessions, to know that she had been living such a mediocre lifestyle. For one reason or another, she felt the need to impress her. Luckily, Ruri was a fast thinker.

She shyly extended her hand. "I can take you to my room."

Angelica smiled and delicately took her hand. The two girls left the party together and headed upstairs, with Angelica's older brother following a distance behind.

The triplets had been too busy arguing amongst each other to notice. Ayato and Kanato were complaining that _clearly_ nothing was going to go wrong so there was no need for them to be there, while Laito _insisted_ that Ruri was such a cute girl that she needed someone to protect her. Sure enough, when they turned around, Ruri was nowhere to be found.

"Oh my God. We lost her."

Ayato put his hands up. "Well, it's not my fault."

"Someone should have been paying attention-"

Laito cried out in horror. "This is no good at all! We have to find her right away!"

"We should just tell Subaru," Kanato sighed. "This is his responsibility in the first place. As his older brother, I'll scold him for this later."

"Yeah, yeah. It's Subaru's fault, not mine."

Laito had no time for this. "Everybody split up," he commanded, allowing no room for protest. "I'll search the ballroom. Ayato, you try outside. And Kanato, you look upstairs."

And off they went.

Meanwhile, Ruri had taken Angelica to her father's room. She now stood in front of the tall, imposing door, staring hesitantly up at it. She had never been in that room before and was told repeatedly to _never_ go in this room. But Angelica had linked arms with her and was bouncing up and down excitedly, impatiently asking Ruri if this was her room. Feeling an intense feeling of pressure to impress her, Ruri nodded, and reached up to grab the doorknob.

The interior of the room was dark. It usually ran on candlelight but all the lights were out, since it was empty. There were large statues twisted into grotesque positions against the walls, so many that it was difficult to tell which limb was attached to which body, and paintings of shallow and disconnected-looking people whose eyes were unfocused and seemed to be looking elsewhere. A tall glass window that oversaw the courtyard was the only source of light; the moonlit state of the sky turned the room a deep blue and made the statues cast odd, monster-like shadows against the wall. Before the window was a huge desk, and while Ruri was a bit too short to see the top of it, she could see the tops of stacks of paper and what appeared to be a rotten apple and also something _moving_.

Angelica apparently didn't see whatever it was that was squirming around on top of the desk - she was too busy observing the rest of the room while keeping a tight grip on Ruri's hand. All of Ruri's instincts were telling her to get out of that room right now, but she was too distracted by Angelica's hand to actually make a move.

"This is your room, Ruri?"

Ruri nodded quickly. To an adult it might seem obvious that she was lying, but Angelica wasn't an adult.

"It's so cool. Do you collect all these things?"

"Yes."

"Whoa...It's way cooler than my room!" Angelica turned to face Ruri, and now held both of her hands tightly. "I really like you, Ruri."

Ruri was dumbfounded for a moment. She was unsure about this plan for a while, but now it seemed to be paying off perfectly fine. "I like you too."

Angelica's brother had been waiting outside, but now he peeked into the room. He blinked at the two holding hands, but then when he caught sight of the moving thing on top of the desk, his eyes widened a bit. "Angelica!" he snapped suddenly. "You better get out of there."

Ruri looked visibly shaken at being interrupted. Angelica turned to her brother, red in the face.

"Geez! I didn't ask you to be following me around everywhere! Mother told _you_ to talk to Ruri but you've been acting rude to her this whole time!"

Her brother replicated her exasperated anger. "Well _Father_ told me to keep an eye on you! I can't help but follow you, it's my job! But you've been stuck with this girl all day!"

"Ruri is nice to me," Angelica huffed. "And she listens to my stories, and she collects cool stuff! For example-" Angelica let go of Ruri's hand.

"Angelica, don't touch anything!"

Angelica wasn't about to start listening to her brother any time soon. She headed straight for the desk to do some investigating, and stood on her tiptoes, though she was still too short to see what was on top of the desk. She poked around with her right hand, blindly searching for something.

She did not find anything, but something found her.

She felt a pair of teeth sink into her hand. In the delayed time it took for her to react, she felt an unusual and chilly feeling of slime or mucus dripping onto her forearm. The thing that bit her crept forward, its slimy body gliding against her arm-

She shrieked. She threw her body back and flailed her arm wildly to get the thing off of her - she fell backwards, and the thing fell on top of her.

It was a slug, about the size of half of Ruri's body, yellow and moist and apparently hungry. It snapped it's big teeth at Angelica again, and she screamed and tried to bat it away.

With absolutely no concerns about how dangerous the slug was, Ruri lunged forward and grabbed it. Her number one priority was to get this thing _off_ of Angelia before it bit her again. She felt the gross slimy body's dead weight in her hands, and no matter how hard she strained herself, it was too heavy. She couldn't get the slug off of her, and Angelica kept shrieking in terror.

" _What are you doing?!_ " she heard in her ear. She jolted due to the sheer volume of the voice she heard, and when she whirled around she saw Kanato, looking furious with her. To tell the truth, he had every right to be furious with her: she had snuck away from the party with a girl, into her father's room, and she had started touching his things without permission and aggravating his dangerous pet (?) slug. Ruri let out a whimper and she would've started apologizing on the spot if she didn't desperately need Kanato's help at the moment.

Kanato pushed Ruri away and yanked the giant slug off of Angelica, who was kicking and screaming for her life. Kanato kicked the slug so hard that specks of slime flew off of its body, and he yelled some words at the slug too, but Ruri was too concerned with Angelica. After being kicked, the slug gurgled menacingly and slithered away behind the statues.

Angelica was being supported by her brother now, but she was still splayed out on the ground with her dress dyed an ugly green-yellow by the slug. Where the slug had touched her, her clothes were clinging to her with moisture, and she was sobbing out of both horror and discomfort.

Ruri scrambled to her side. Even though her hands were still wet with the slug's liquid, she reached out to her. She tried to call out to her, but her voice came out warbled and broken, the same as it was before she took speech training: "Angelica-"

Angelica's brother slapped her hand away, as if it posed a bigger threat than the slug did. "Don't _touch_ her!"

Ruri recoiled, and grasped the hand that had just been hit close to her chest. The boy was much stronger than her, so her hand was now red and stinging. He was looking at her with nothing other than animosity in his eyes.

"You- You creepy girl- My sister could have died!" he roared. His crying sister was wrapped up in his arms now. "What kind of little girl keeps a monster like that! Don't come near her again, freak!"

He probably would have continued on, but Kanato violently grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled on it, shutting him up. Kanato's eyes were glaring at the boy menacingly, communicating that he was angry enough to kill him.

"Please don't act like a savior when you're hurting my sister too; it's hypocritical." Kanato's voice was low and cold.

Angelica's brother winced from the pain of having his hair pulled. "You-"

" _You shouldn't ever touch my sister again either_."

After another agonizing seconds of practically ripping the boy's hair out, Kanato released him and told him under his breath to take his sister and _go away_. The boy hurriedly grabbed his sister and ran away, only turning back to yell, "Your whole family is insane!"

A hush fell over Karl Heinz's room as Ruri and Kanato were the only ones left. Kanato turned to face Ruri, who was still on the ground clutching her hand, and staring with mystified eyes at Kanato. Kanato then saw her start to tear up.

"Please don't cry, I _told_ you only annoying children cry-"

It was too late, she was already crying. She felt dreadful. She had really liked Angelica and now she thought Ruri was a freak, and her brother thought so too, and he had even hit her hand. It was all Ruri's fault for leading Angelica into such a dangerous place just to impress her. Angelica had probably been really really scared. And on top of all of that, Kanato was probably extremely angry with her, and maybe he would even tell her mother or _worse_ , her _father_. What that boy had said was right, she was a freak, and she was creepy-

Kanato knelt down and placed his hand on her head. Ruri sniffled pathetically and looked back up at him.

"It's okay," Kanato murmured. His voice sounded awkward, like he wasn't totally used to this comforting thing yet. "He said some mean things, huh?"

Ruri shook her head. "N-No."

"You don't have to pretend that you weren't hurt by it." He paused. "When people say hurtful things, sometimes you want to try and become numb to them, because you think it will hurt less that way. But you can't heal when you're numb. It takes an even stronger person to be hurt and to be able to heal." Kanato brushed his fingers through her hair. "I want you to become strong."

Ruri watched him with large eyes, and then hastily tried to wipe away her tears. "Yes." Her voice still wasn't back to normal.

Kanato got up, and started to walk away. "If you understand, then let's get you washed up so you can return to the party. You'll get in big trouble if you get caught in this room without permission, you know."

Ruri struggled to her feet, hurried to catch up to him, and grabbed onto his hand. "Thank you, Kanato."

Kanato was somewhat caught off-guard, but then he sighed and held her hand as he walked. "Your hands are all dirty though…"

"So are - Kanato's."

Kanato laughed to himself. "I guess you're right. We both messed up and got all dirty. We'll probably both get scolded. Haha!" It was apparently pretty funny to him.

Ruri didn't get what was so funny. But she didn't care. She smiled along with him anyway, and the two of them swung their arms a bit as they walked.


	9. Chapter 9

Laito, like many of his brothers, had to grow up too fast.

There simply wasn't a lot of time to be a kid. Laito knew that, and sometimes he would try and ignore it and play around like a regular kid anyways. He would forget about his daily problems and all the secrets he was keeping, and he just did kid stuff. He built secret hideouts with Kanato, and Ayato joined when he could. He found his mother's makeup stash and he made a mess while trying it out. He played with the pet bats that their family kept. He named a few of them, but he couldn't tell them apart so he would have to name them again later.

He did these things because he knew kids were supposed to do these things. He did them because if he didn't, he thought people would worry. Surely if Ayato and Kanato just saw him moping around, not doing kid stuff, they would surely think Laito was hurting. Laito didn't want them to know he was hurting, so he played around.

But Laito never got over his fate as a sympathetic crier until he was a teenager. Throughout his whole childhood, watching other people cry made him cry too. It was just something so sad to watch. So, sometimes, he had to cry in front of his brothers. But only when they had started crying first.

So Kanato would approach him, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention, his eyes swimming with tears. Laito didn't even have to ask what was wrong. It was pretty easy to assume what had gone wrong in their household, anyway. Something to do with their mother. He must have seen something he didn't want to see. He must have been troubled, as a child, to see that. Laito understood. Laito cried along with him.

It felt so much better to comfort his brothers, to hold their hands and cry next to them. It made him feel like, even if no one could do anything for him, he could at least do good for other people. And it tortured him to think about how someday they might grow up normal and mature, and they wouldn't cry anymore and they wouldn't need his help anymore. But he'd still be Laito, because he did all of his growing up when he was still a child. He would still need help.

He didn't want his brothers to grow up as quickly as he did.

* * *

As Ruri grew up, she learned a lot of things.

Her mother's breakdowns were far less frequent than they were when Subaru was a child, but eventually she did witness them. The very first time she saw one, she remembered what Subaru told her about how she would "see her at her worst someday" - and she got frightened and ran off to beg the maids to help her. She was still a child and she didn't understand what was going on. But Christa wouldn't calm down till she had her daughter back in her arms.

Ruri got much better at handling it over the years. She would sit with her mother and comb through her hair and tell her stories about times she had spent with her brothers. Christa enjoyed hearing about Ruri's experiences, especially those with Subaru. When Ruri was a bit older and wiser, she got the feeling that Christa was trying to relive her own youth through Ruri. She did not know her mother's story yet, but she got the feeling that she did not get much of an opportunity to be young.

Ruri had also, as Kanato had predicted, gotten quite a few marriage proposals. She found herself greatly disinterested in each boy she met with, and she would hand letters from these boys to her mother, who would tear them up on the spot. Christa did not want to see Ruri married off either. But everyone seemed to want to get their hands on the Vampire King's only daughter.

There were a few attempts on her life too. Ruri was stuck in bed sick for weeks because someone had poisoned her cup of tea. The culprit ended up being her favorite maid, who Ruri had liked and trusted very much, and she was subsequently executed by her father. This had left Ruri heartbroken and unable to eat or drink anything while she was sick, which only made her condition worse.

As years went by, Ruri's body grew along with her mind. Her figure matured and she grew out of all the clothes Laito had bought for her, but she kept them tucked away in her closet (Actually, Ruri had grown up to be quite a hoarder - she had difficulty throwing anything away, except for the gifts she had received from her suitors, most of which she tossed immediately). Since she was now sensitive to sunlight, the already-faint freckles on her cheeks disappeared. She could now speak fluently without any problems, and she took up a few books on sign language just in case, so now she could sign fairly well too, even though she was a bit out of practice because no one else in her house could sign. She was still a quiet and not very expressive person, though she had gotten much better at conversation since she was a kid.

She still visited her brothers periodically, on each of their birthdays and again on her own. It brought all the brothers together, surprisingly enough; everyone was, in one way or another, looking forward to seeing her again. At first Laito appeared worried every time she visited - afraid she was going to be drastically different from how she was as a child - but after a number of years, he realized Ruri wasn't going anywhere. She was still his adorable little sister.

It was early august. Ruri's physical age was about fourteen. Her brothers, in a physical sense, had not aged any noteworthy amount. In the next few weeks, Ruri was scheduled to visit the Sakamaki house for Reiji's birthday.

A young blonde girl had entered the mansion, her hair slightly wet from the rain outside. One hand was clutching the handle of her rolling bag tightly, and the other was gripping the rosary around her neck. This girl's name was Yui Komori.

Mere minutes within her arrival, all of the boys had gotten the scent of her blood and had headed downstairs to get some of it. She had been passed back and forth between them, grabbed at, even licked, and she was doing everything she could to struggle free. Doing so, she had worked up a sweat and her legs were shaking.

"Please," she begged to Reiji, who looked like the most sensible out of all of them. "I think there was some mistake. My father sent me here saying that you were extended family of his-"

Reiji had his arms crossed and he appeared to be thinking hard. "Well, your father most certainly lied to you."

She was trembling and her face was flushed. "That can't be!"

"Now, now, Bitch-chan," Laito interrupted them, suddenly hugging her from behind. "Forget about all that stuff and come have fun with us for a while!"

"No!" she squeaked, trying to get away but unable to muster the strength to do much. "I don't want to!"

"Laito, please. I am trying to get to the bottom of this."

"But who cares where she came from~ As long as we have someone to play with now~" Laito sniffed at Yui's neck. "Ahh, you smell so good…"

"Cut it out, Laito! Yours Truly saw her first," Ayato snapped. "And Yours Truly is going to be her first everything."

"Don't be like that...Here, we can bite her together?"

" _Bite_ me?!" Yui yelped. Tears sprung to her eyes. This was all too much.

"It will cause a lot of trouble for me if you make a mess now, so please refrain from doing so."

"What can I say? I'm the kind of guy who likes to make messes," Laito laughed. With that, he bared his fangs and sank them into Yui's neck.

Yui wanted to scream, but she found her voice getting caught in her throat. Her muscles tensed up with the pain of her skin being punctured, and she slowly lost feeling in her legs. Laito had to wrap an arm around her torso to keep her from falling to her knees.

"Laito, that's no fair…" Kanato whimpered.

"Laito, you bastard!"

Laito laughed to himself. "Sorry, sorry...But Bitch-chan, really...you taste so good…" His cheeks had turned red. "I don't think I can stop myself-"

While his guard was down, Yui threw her arm back and elbowed Laito in the ribs. Out of surprise, Laito released her, and Yui ran like her life depended on it (because it probably did) toward the front door.

She threw it open, but there was already someone in the doorway, looking like they were _just_ about to knock. It was Ruri.

Ruri was shocked to suddenly see such a pretty girl in her brothers' house. She stood there mouth agape, unsure of how to react.

Yui backed up. "Another one…" she whispered. She looked horrified of Ruri.

Laito appeared behind Yui and grabbed onto her shoulders. When he saw Ruri, his eyes lit up. "Ruri! Ruri, you're here! But it's so early!"

Ruri hesitated and lifted up the bag she had in her hands slightly. "I went shopping for gifts earlier. But after I bought them, I was so excited to give them to you that I couldn't wait."

"That is _literally_ the cutest thing I've ever heard. Come in! As you can see we have a guest right now, though~"

Ruri took a closer look at the guest. She was most definitely a human, and a very beautiful human at that. She looked near Ruri's age, perhaps a bit older. Her eyes were wide and moist with tears, her pink lips were parted slightly, and she smelled wonderful. Ruri's eyes fell onto the girl's neck, which was stained crimson with blood. A drop of that blood slipped from the bite marks on her neck and rolled onto her collarbone. Ruri felt her mouth start to water.

Yui stared at Ruri, tears still swimming in her eyes. Her shoulders and knees were still shaking. This girl was scary - her eyes were a dull red, and she looked like a possessed doll. She watched in horror as this creepy girl observed her, and she flinched when she opened her mouth to speak-

"She's bleeding."

Her voice was quiet. Ruri stepped towards her and brushed Yui's hair away from the bite marks on her neck. "Are you alright?" she asked Yui.

"I- Um-"

"Laito-" Subaru growled. "You better not do anything weird in front of Ruri. I'll break you."

"Eh? I would never!" Laito released Yui immediately. "Ruri's still innocent, after all."

Out of fatigue from the traumatic events she was facing, Yui's legs could barely hold her own weight. She staggered, but Ruri caught her before she could fall, and she allowed Yui to rest some of her weight on her.

"Careful," Ruri said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Yui whimpered; Ruri's face was so close to hers now. "Are you going to hurt me…?" she asked weakly.

Ruri didn't know how to respond to that. She didn't remember doing anything to make herself look dangerous. Come to think of it, she's met very few humans in her lifetime, but every one of them had been scared of her. Maybe Ruri was just scary.

"I don't think I'll hurt you." That answer didn't inspire much confidence in Yui, but Yui didn't have much of a choice but to stay near her since she could hardly stand on her own. "You should sit down, I'll get you a bandage."

Reiji had still been in deep thought, but he snapped out of it. "Oh, Ruri. Please take her to one of the guest bedrooms. And Subaru, take her bags."

"Yes sir," Ruri responded, and then added, "Happy birthday, Reiji."

Reiji coughed. "It's too early for that. Do as you're told."

Ruri nodded, and led Yui away, supporting her as they walked. As she left, she heard the sound of Shu snickering from the couch, and Reiji telling him to quit laughing.

Ruri took Yui up to one of the guest bedrooms and sat her down on the bed. She then turned to go get some bandages, but Yui grabbed onto her wrist.

"Wait," she pleaded.

Ruri faced her again, staring for a moment down at Yui's hand. It was so soft. "Yes?"

"I…" Yui meekly averted her eyes. "I don't want to be alone here."

If Ruri had a heartbeat, it surely would have been racing.

Ruri placed her other hand on top of Yui's. "It's okay," she told her. "I'll go get some bandages for you, then I'll stay here."

"Answer my questions first."

Ruri nodded.

"What are you?"

What an existential question. Of course, Ruri knew what she meant. "We're vampires."

"There's no way that can be true." Yui's voice was shaking. Ruri noticed tears welling up in her eyes again.

"Oh, please don't cry-"

Yui was already sniffling and wiping her eyes. "This can't be happening. My father must have made some sort of mistake. He wouldn't have sent me to a house full of monsters."

Ruri hesitantly rubbed the back of Yui's hand to calm her. She noticed that humans had much warmer hands than vampires did. "I don't think my brothers are monsters."

"Those people are your brothers?"

"Yes." She tilted her head slightly. "...Do humans think vampires are monsters?"

Yui tensed up a bit. Apparently she thought what she said might have been cruel. "Oh, no. Well...Truthfully, yes." She wiped her eyes again. "I didn't think they were real."

"It's okay," Ruri said quickly. "When I was very small, I thought humans were a myth."

That seemed just too silly for Yui, because she suddenly started laughing through her tears. "No you didn't."

Ruri felt her face grow warm when Yui laughed, like all of a sudden all the blood in her body rushed to her cheeks. "It's true." Ruri knelt down on the bed beside her. "My mother would read me stories about human history and I thought they were fairy tales."

"No way!"

"Really! When I started studying for real, I read about a lot of historical figures who were humans and I was so shocked."

Yui laughed again, and if possible, Ruri felt her face getting even hotter. This girl was just too pretty. And she had the nicest laugh Ruri had ever heard. "Um," Ruri said suddenly. "What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Yui was through crying, and she rubbed her eyes to rid herself of the last of her tears. "My name is Yui Komori."

"Yui," Ruri repeated. "...It's a very pretty name."

"Thank you so much." Yui sniffed. "Um, Ruri, was it?"

Upon hearing Yui say her name, Ruri suddenly felt dizzy, like she had been struck by Cupid's arrow. "I'm sorry - I'm hard of hearing. Can you say it one more time?" Ruri had heard her perfectly well the same time, but she desperately wanted to hear her say it again.

" _Ru-ri_. Like that?" Yui smiled.

"I'm - Uh - _Yes_." Ruri couldn't stand another second of this. She staggered to her feet. "I'm going to get those bandages now."

Yui's hand covered the bite marks on her neck. "...Hurry back, please. I feel safer when you're around."

Ruri almost tripped on her way out the door.

She made it out and shut the door, and then pressed her cold hands to her cheeks. The difference in temperature was astounding. She heard Kanato's voice off to her right: "Are you alright? You look like you just ran a marathon."

"Kanato!" she squeaked, not expecting anyone to be nearby. "I was just…"

Kanato had Teddy in his arms, and he tilted his head to the side. "Is the human girl in there?"

"She is, but she's feeling very faint so please let her rest for now."

Kanato cocked his head a bit further. "...Ruri. You look like you have a lot on your mind right now. It's okay to talk to your big brother about it."

"Oh. Thank you. I'm fine, though."

Kanato stared at her for a moment longer. At her flushed cheeks, her wide eyes, her pursed lips. He looked suspicious for a brief moment, but he decided to leave her alone.

Ruri breathed a sigh of relief when Kanato walked away. Unconsciously, she started fixing her hair on her way to get the bandages.

Yui made her so, so curious. Even if she had just left her alone for a minute, Ruri already longed to be back in the room with her. Her fingertips still felt like they were ablaze from where Yui had touched her. Ruri had never felt the hands of a human before, and she had found that they were pleasantly warm, and she wanted to touch them more. And somehow the way her eyes shimmered when they were full of tears was so charming, even if Ruri liked her even better when she was smiling. And her hair was a lovely blonde color that suggested that she had been out in the sun frequently, and Ruri delighted in imagining how warm her body must be when bathed in sunlight. The way the light would shine off her blonde hair, and seep into her soft skin.

And, oh God, the way she had said her name. And the sweet smell coming off of her neck, which was all stained with blood...

Ruri stopped in her tracks, suddenly waking up from the fantasy that she had been lost in.

...She really was curious.


	10. Chapter 10

**(A/N: Thank you so much for reading this far you guys! You've been so nice and supportive to me, it makes me feel so good ;-; You're all sweethearts!)**

* * *

When Ayato was a kid, he did not like to be alone, ever. No one around him was quite sure where his abandonment issues came from, but he could be moved to tears within seconds if you left him behind. When he was playing with his brothers and his mother yanked him away by his shirt collar, he screamed and cried and wouldn't stop till she slapped him. Kanato and Laito, when they were finally able to reunite with him, held his hand and rubbed his back so he felt better. It pained them to see their brother like that.

Ayato had a stuffed rabbit that he slept with every night. He couldn't sleep without it. Ayato was a fussy sleeper and he kicked and pulled and bit things while he slept, so the rabbit was a little bit beaten up. He didn't mind in the slightest, though. The rabbit looked like it had been through a lot, which Ayato thought was kind of manly and heroic. He didn't feel any shame about sleeping with a stuffed animal. He hated feeling lonely more than anything else, and hugging onto the rabbit made him feel less lonely.

His mother did not like seeing her eldest son with a stuffed animal at all. In her eyes, Ayato was already an adult and he should be acting like one. He should be studying every day, and he shouldn't be goofing around with his brothers and getting all dirty, and he certainly shouldn't be carrying a stuffed rabbit around. She would never hear the end of it from Beatrix if she saw - she'd probably give Cordelia a sly smile and tell her how cute her son was, how cutely childish it was that he had a stuffed animal. She'd sarcastically ask, How old is he again? Four? Five? Is he still in diapers?

Cordelia could not bear that kind of humiliation. So whenever she saw Ayato carrying that rabbit around (and he would carry it everywhere: he'd lift it up by the torso and run around with it in the courtyard and even place it in a sitting position in the dirt while he dug for bugs with his brothers) she would take it away and put it somewhere where he couldn't get to it, like in a cupboard that was too high up for little Ayato to reach, for example. And, naturally, every time Ayato would cry and cry until one of the servants came along and retrieved it for him.

Cordelia might have just destroyed the rabbit, figuring that Ayato would get over it soon, but as it turns out, that rabbit had been a gift from Ayato's father. She could not, under any circumstances, get rid of a gift from Karl Heinz. But it also irritated her even more that Ayato's best gift from his father was a stuffed rabbit, while Beatrix's children had gotten more valuable, more adult-suited items, like a violin or a pocket watch. Was Karl Heinz looking down on her and her children? Was he testing her somehow? In any case, she grew to greatly resent the stuffed animal that her son wouldn't let go.

What she hated even more was the grating shrieks she had to deal with whenever she took the rabbit away. Cordelia had to admit to herself that she simply did not like kids, but Ayato was pushing the limits of how annoying a child could be.

"You are going to be king someday," she snapped at her crying child. "Do you want all your subjects to think you're a baby who sleeps with a stuffed animal? Do you?"

Ayato didn't want that, so it only made him cry harder. Now not only did he feel alone, but he felt awfully ashamed of himself as well. He was picturing a big crowd of people pointing and laughing at him because of his stuffed rabbit. But the idea of parting with the rabbit was even sadder. He sobbed pitifully and wiped away his snot on his sleeves. "You-" he choked through the tears. "You let Kanato have a stuffed animal."

" _Kanato_ isn't going to be king, Ayato! Surely you've realized by now that you're _different_ from the other boys. For goodness sake, when will you grow up?"

"Give him back," Ayato pleaded. Since he didn't have anything else to hold onto, he was gripping onto his own shirt.

"It's not a _him_ , Ayato, it's not alive. It's just a bunch of stuffing!" Cordelia was furious. Admittedly, she might not have done this if she hadn't been so frustrated with Ayato. But, to demonstrate her point, she took hold of one of the rabbit's ears and tore it off with a loud _rip_ , causing a few tufts of stuffing to fall to the ground. She held the injured rabbit in front of Ayato's face by the one ear it had left. It dangled silently, looking sad and beaten up.

It occurred to her for a moment that she had gone too far, and that now that she had hurt Ayato's precious stuffed animal, he was only going to scream louder. Much to her surprise, Ayato went completely silent. He stared at the rabbit with wide, tearful eyes, completely shellshocked.

His sudden silence made Cordelia uncomfortable. She dropped the rabbit, which crumpled to the ground like a soldier that had been gunned down. "You see," she said, turning away. "No blood, no screams of pain, nothing like that. It's an inanimate object." Having made her point, she walked away and left Ayato alone with his friend.

Ayato very quietly picked the rabbit up off the ground, with both hands, as gently as possible. Kanato and Laito poked their heads around the corner. They had been there the whole time, but they were too frightened to do anything.

"Oh, Ayato," Laito said sadly, approaching him. "That's terrible."

A little guiltily, Kanato spoke up. "You can sleep with Teddy tonight if you want."

Ayato couldn't seem to say anything. He felt anguished enough to cry, but he couldn't seem to do it. He tapped with a trembling hand at the stuffing that poked out of the wound on his rabbit's head, pushing it back in. The turned towards his brothers and showed them the rabbit. His face was still stained with tears.

"See," he said, voice shaking. "It's like a battle scar. It's really cool. If I ever saw a wild rabbit with only one ear, I would think it looked awesome. All the best rabbits only have one ear, I think."

Laito perked up a bit. "That's right, Ayato! I think so too."

Kanato hastily added, "Teddy only has one eye. Now they're matching."

Ayato very carefully hugged the rabbit, like it was a fragile object. But then, when he realized that his rabbit was much tougher than that, he squeezed it as tight as he could.

* * *

Yui adapted surprisingly fast to her new environment, because she was a rather optimistic person and moping around only tired her out. So she greeted her captors with a smile, and made breakfast in their kitchen some mornings (french toast topped with powdered sugar and strawberries - her specialty), and she studied the material she was learning at her night school. At first her sleep schedule was difficult to change, and she found herself dozing off during the night while everyone else was awake. Ruri watched her through all of this, and she thought that Yui was very charming and cute.

The two of them were good friends. Between breakfast and lunch they would often sit together drinking tea (Ruri insisted that she make it because Yui was a guest, but in secret she hoped one day she could taste the tea Yui made.) and Yui would talk about what night school was like, and what kind of material she was learning. Ruri showed profound interest no matter what the topic was.

The topic she was most interested in, though, was Yui's human life. She had grown up with her father, a Catholic priest, in a church, and the members of the church had become like her extended family. She told stories about how every Sunday, many people came to the church - enough to fill all the pews - dressed in their best clothes, and they talked and sang together and learned about God and the stories told in the Bible. She told Ruri, with a gentle smile and a distant look in her eye, that people go to the church to get married, and they wear white dresses and decorate the whole place with flowers, and the family members that gathered there often cry because there is so much love there. The priest blesses them and the couple shares a kiss and everyone celebrates.

Ruri was infatuated. She had heard of churches in her history books, and she knew in general about what happened during a marriage ceremony, but she had never actually experienced any of these things for herself. Up until now they had only been facts in a book or a proposal on paper, but Yui was bringing them to life in such a beautiful way. She seemed so sentimental about it, like it was something very dear to her heart. Ruri's imagination was running wild. She wanted to experience it.

Ruri was writing in a journal on the sofa when Laito tapped her head.

"Hey Ruri~ You look so deep in thought. What are you thinking about?"

Ruri turned her head and looked up at him. "I want to have a wedding in a church."

Laito's smile disappeared. "...Oh."

"Yui says that in weddings, there's someone called a best man and he stands with the couple while they get married. She said that the best man is someone very close to couple, who loves them very much."

Laito hesitated. "Ruri-"

"If I were to have a wedding, I would want you to be the best man."

Laito was about to tell her that, as a vampire, she would most definitely not have a wedding in a church. He was about to tell her that, even if she did, the bride typically doesn't choose the best man. He was also about to try to talk her out of it - the entire marriage idea - by any means necessary. He wanted to tell her that if she got married then it would break his heart. But as soon as she said that, his eyes started stinging with tears. To think that his own little sister, the little sister he had wanted since he was a child, loved him enough to ask him to be the best man at her wedding. He was so touched and he loved her so much that he was momentarily unable to speak.

"...Okay." He sniffed. "Okay."

"I'll wait till I'm a bit older," Ruri went on, flipping through the pages of her journal. They were full of crude sketches of flowers and long white dresses. "And I'll make sure I marry someone who makes me happy. But when that time comes, I hope you'll stand next to me."

"Okay, Ruri. Thank you…"

Later, while Ruri was helping set the table for dinner (and the triplets had tagged along), Ayato asked her straight out, "Why are you still living at the old man's place? When are you gonna come live here with us?"

Laito perked up. "That's a good question."

"Yeah, doesn't it suck over there?"

Ruri had to think about her answer, but Kanato responded for her. "It's probably not her decision. Our father is probably keeping her there till he can work out her future." Laito made an uncomfortable face and Kanato added, "It's not _my_ fault, it's reality!"

"Where do _you_ wanna stay, kid?" Ayato asked.

Ruri answered somewhat vaguely: "I love my brothers and my mother equally."

"Yeah, I get it. So you can't decide?" Ayato put his head down on the dinner table. "And here I was thinking you liked it here better for sure. I'm here, after all."

"I do like it here a lot, Ayato."

"What if you had to leave for a new place?" Kanato asked. "With someone else?"

"Kanato, you're rushing things," Laito said, looking uncharacteristically irritated.

"...I would be scared, I think." Ruri responded after a moment of thought.

"Ruri doesn't like strangers, huh," Ayato mused. He suddenly grinned at Ruri. "You were pretty scared when you were a baby and you met us for the first time."

"I was a baby," Ruri responded, returning his smile. "I'm not scared of strangers now."

"Like Yui?" Kanato asked, suddenly recalling Ruri's face when he last saw her with Yui.

"...Yes, like Yui." Ruri looked at her hands. "She's very nice to talk to."

"Speaking of Bitch-chan," Laito smirked over at the doorway leading to the living room. "I think she's been listening to our conversation."

Ruri heard a little squeak come from the doorway. Yui poked her head out, looking guilty.

"That's no good, Bitch-chan~ Eavesdropping isn't polite!"

"I-I'm sorry...I heard you mention my name, and I got so curious…"

"Hey!" Ayato suddenly stood up. "Good timing, Chichinashi. I just thought of something good."

"Um…?"

Ayato suddenly appeared behind Yui, and he grabbed her shoulders to keep her in place. Yui jolted, squeezing her hands together close to her chest.

"Hey, Ruri. You've never actually tried blood straight from the source, right?"

"Oh!" Laito stood up too. "Good idea, Ayato!"

Yui stammered, "What's going on?"

"Since Chichinashi is here, this is the perfect opportunity." Ayato roughly grabbed Yui's chin and forced her to expose her neck. "You're practically a mature vampire now, so it's about time you try biting a human."

Ruri hesitated, and looked at the display in front of her. Yui was restrained and wriggling in Ayato's arms, a distressed look on her face, her hair all strewn about and her white neck right in front of Ruri's eyes. She called out in a shrill voice for the triplets to let her go, but the more frantically she moved about, the stronger and sweeter her scent was. Ruri felt an odd feeling, one that she didn't have a name for.

She remembered the first day she met Yui and saw the red blood dripping down her neck. Ruri suddenly felt very, very thirsty. Every instinct in her body pushed her forward, closer to Yui, closer to the source of that sweet smell.

Yui let out a strangled noise of protest but, before she even knew what she was doing, Ruri had sank her teeth into Yui's neck.

She felt Yui's body shiver, and hot, sweet blood oozed from the wound. She licked and kissed at Yui's neck, listening to Yui's sweet voice in her ear, though she wasn't the least bit aware of what she was saying. Ruri was devoting all her attention to the taste of Ruri's blood - as she shut her eyes and blissfully drank, she even forgot that the triplets were there. She became vaguely aware that her left hand was on the back of Yui's neck, with her fingers intertwining with her hair.

Though she was still floating in her own world, she heard Yui moan out her name. It sounded so terribly nice coming from Yui's lips, and Ruri would have very much liked to hear her say her name even more, but Ruri also noticed that Yui sounded afraid.

Ruri heard another voice in the back of her head. The voice of Angela's brother. _You creepy girl! Don't ever come near her again, freak!_

"Ruri, sto- stop-" Yui gasped. Ruri stopped right away, taking a staggering step back.

She stared wide-eyed at the red bite marks she had made on Yui's neck. Ruri had only realized it now, but they were not the only bite marks she had. Several of Ruri's brothers had already bitten her and scarred her pale skin. Yui had nearly collapsed in Ayato's arms, and she looked like a mess. Tears were falling from her eyes, but she seemed too exhausted to really cry. Yui was looking at Ruri as if she were afraid of her. No, she _was_ afraid of her.

"Well?" Laito disregarded Yui's tears, and he laid a hand on Ruri's shoulder. "How was that, huh? How was your first time? Did she taste good?"

Ruri didn't answer. She turned away, and briskly walked back to her room.

Kanato and Laito watched her go with a frown. "Uh oh," Laito commented. Ayato silently let go of Yui, who stumbled for a moment, and ran away back to _her_ room once she steadied herself.

"I suppose we went too far," Kanato sighed. "Though I don't really get what her problem is."

Ayato, feeling like this whole thing was his fault, scratched at the back of his neck. "...Hell. I'll go talk to the kid."

"Oh, good job Ayato!" Laito clapped his hands. "How responsible of you."

Ayato told him to shut up, and slowly climbed the stairs up to Ruri's room, thinking hard about how to handle this. He eventually decided, though, that thinking about things would get him nowhere and he should just dive straight in. So, that's what he did. He opened Ruri's door without even knocking, and saw her sitting on her bed, flipping through the pages of her journal sadly.

"Hey, kid."

Ruri meekly looked up at him.

"What happened just now? What's got you all freaked out?"

Ruri didn't say anything, so Ayato shut the door and sat on the bed with her. They sat in silence for a while, and the only sound was Ruri flipping the pages of her journal. Finally Ayato asked, "Whatcha got there?"

"A notebook."

"What do you write in it?"

"Things that I'm thinking about."

"What are you thinking about right now?"

Ruri hesitantly responded, "I hurt Yui."

"What the heck, _that's_ what you're upset about?"

"I really liked her," Ruri continued. "And I hurt her. I made her cry. I'm sure she hates me now."

Ayato rubbed the back of his neck again, and tried to give some advice. "Hey, look. Do you remember when you were little, and Reiji was tutoring you for a while, and every time you did something wrong he would hit your hands with a ruler or some shit like that? This was before we knew that you were hard of hearing."

Ruri had been very young at the time, but she did remember getting her palms struck so many times, so she nodded.

"Well, after Reiji _did_ find out you were hard of hearing, he was freakin' out just like you're doing now. Because he had hurt you. Do you hate Reiji now?"

"I don't hate Reiji."

"Of course you don't! Hell, you even got the guy a birthday present. _I_ didn't even get him a birthday present!" Ruri looked up at Ayato instead of staring down at her journal. Ayato seemed to have some trouble deciding on what to say next in order to make his point. "So what I'm saying is...Sometimes you hurt people. I don't think there's a single person in this world who hasn't hurt someone else before. But people are tough, and they heal. So if you apologize to the person you hurt and, y'know, give them some time...They're gonna heal, and they're gonna forgive you."

Ruri looked at him hopefully. "You think that Yui won't hate me?"

"She's not gonna hate you. Take it from Yours Truly. I know everything, you know."

Without warning, Ruri hugged Ayato tightly. Ayato froze up, feeling himself grow warm with embarrassment. He tousled Ruri's hair. "Okay, okay, kid. Get outta here."

Ruri stood up. "Yes. I'm going to go apologize to her right now." She headed towards the door. "Thank you, Ayato. I love you."

"Ruri!"

Ruri paused in the doorway, and turned to look at him. Ayato smiled crookedly at her.

"What did you get Reiji for his birthday, anyway? I'm looking for ideas."

"Oh…" She smiled back at him. "It's a secret, though."


	11. Chapter 11

The triplets grew up with an affinity for reading stories. They had all kinds of fables and storybooks in their family home, and Ayato always managed to spice the stories up with his own creative additions. Nobody else other than them had heard the version of Hansel and Gretel where the kids get saved by a fire-breathing lion. Nope, that was an experience that only the three of them shared.

Kanato was infatuated with stories about princesses and romance. Laito didn't really know how he felt about them. Regardless of whether he liked them or not, they did make him think. Like about the whole concept of saving someone from a tower because you love them. Laito had to think about it.

 _If I had to save my mother from a tower, I would do it because I love her. But I might wait a day or two so I can get some decent sleep first._

Well luckily Laito never had to make that decision while he was still a child. The time for him to make that decision came when he was a teenager, after he had much more time to think about it.

The deep rumbling of the piano set the stage. The air was thick with the sweet and enticing smell of blood, and could only be pierced with the occasional high-pitched shriek from the princess. With a sudden crash she threw open the door, and Laito watched her enter, bleeding and wheezing, while he plucked away at the keys of the piano. The soundtrack to their fairytale.

"Laito," the princess breathed. "You have to help me - Ayato is coming after me - he's trying to kill me - that-" She described Laito's brother using some language that probably would not be appropriate for a children's story. Then she reached her slender, shaking hand towards Laito. "Save me-"

With a smile on his lips, Laito stood up from the piano. The sound of the last note he played hung in the air for a moment, then faded away, lost in the strong scent of the blood from the princess's wounds. "That's okay, Mother," he said gently, like a prince. "You're safe now that you're with me."

With a twisted smile on her painted lips, the princess extended her hand to him. "Laito. You love me, don't you?"

"Of course I do, Mother." Even though the piano music was gone now, the tune kept playing in his head. He kissed the gloved hand of the princess. "Everything I do for you is out of love."

He grabbed hold of her thin wrist, and jerked her towards the window. With a violent shove, he shattered the glass and forced her over the edge. The princess fell with an equally glass-shattering scream, and landed in a twisted heap on the grass below her tower.

In the end Laito had decided to save the princess from the tower. Because he loved her. And because he loved her so much, it was a huge relief that she was gone.

* * *

When Ayato had said that people need time to heal, he was right. Yui could be a bit of a doormat sometimes so she forgave Ruri as soon as she apologized, but Ruri could tell that Yui was somewhat wary of her now. The bite marks on her neck, too, hadn't healed yet. Ruri made a silent observation that it took humans longer to heal than vampires.

Ruri thought that the answer might be to leave Yui alone for a while - that was always the solution when Subaru was upset. Shu would say, "He needs time alone." Maybe Yui did too. Still, Ruri was itching to make some sort of peace offering with her and establish herself as Yui's friend again.

They still spent time with each other. Since Yui seemed very frightened and unfamiliar with the environment she was in, Ruri took to showing her around the house to make it feel a bit more like home. When their tour extended to the library, Ruri took her time pointing out and naming all the books she had enjoyed reading. Plenty of them were in the vampire written language and Yui could not read the text at all. She seemed very impressed that Ruri could read them.

"Is this one in the vampire language too…?" she mused, picking an interesting-looking one off of the shelf. "Oh, never mind. This one's in German."

"Can you read German?" Ruri asked, hopefully. She wanted Yui to find a book that she could read too. Ruri was imagining being in a room with hundreds of books but not being able to read any of them, and she found the hypothetical situation very frustrating.

"No, I can't. But I know this book!" Yui smiled excitedly at the cover. "It's Bambi. It's a famous one so it's been translated to lots of languages. It's about a baby deer that grows up and learns how to live life in the forest."

Ruri already knew that, but Yui looked so sweet while she was explaining the plot, so Ruri nodded and listened intently.

"Can you read German, Ruri?"

She was studying it with her mother, but she didn't know very much. "Yes."

"Maybe we can read it a bit together!"

Ruri felt her cheeks go warm. "Then, I'll read it to you."

Ruri tried her hardest to translate it. There were lots of parts she didn't know, and during those parts she made up things that seemed to fit with the story. Little details about Bambi's friendship with the rabbit, or the different kinds of birds Bambi saw. Little things like that made Yui smile, so Ruri added as much as possible. Yui was either completely fooled, or she was just playing along, because she let Ruri tell the story uninterrupted. They sat together on a sofa in the library and Ruri read aloud in a soft voice. She was a bit nervous reading to Yui, so her voice wavered sometimes. Yui kept Ruri's microphone around her neck, and fingered it absentmindedly while she listened - so Ruri could hear all Yui's quiet laughs and little hums. A few chapters in, Yui rested her head on Ruri's shoulder, almost lulled to sleep.

One scene in particular was somewhat gruesome, though: the hunters were attacking and had shot some of the forest animals. Bambi runs away from the hunters, and as he runs he comes across a rabbit that had been shot. The rabbit lays there, wounded and asking for help in an eerily polite way, before it dies mid-sentence. A few lines after the death of the rabbit, Ruri could hear Yui's sniffling as it was picked up by the microphone.

"Are you alright?" Ruri asked as gently as she could.

"Yes," Yui said, her voice almost a whisper. She wouldn't look right at Ruri, but she was definitely crying.

"Did it scare you?" Ruri suddenly felt terrible. The _last_ thing she wanted to do was scare Yui again.

"It's just so sad." Yui wiped her eyes. "I feel bad for the rabbit."

Ruri felt a sudden stinging in her chest. "Yui," she whispered to her. She gently rested her head on Yui's, in the same way that Yui was resting on her shoulder. "It's all right. The rabbit's not going to get hurt anymore."

"You're right," Yui laughed breathily through her tears. "Thank you, Ruri."

Later that day, Ruri approached Reiji in the kitchen. He was in the middle of preparing the night's dinner when Ruri tugged on the back of his shirt. Reiji turned, looking confused.

"...Ruri. If you need my attention, call out to me rather than pulling on my clothes. You've done that since you were little. It's a bad habit."

Ruri reflexively signed an apology - which Reiji probably didn't appreciate as much as a he might've appreciated a verbal apology, considering the fact that he couldn't sign - and she went on with her request. "I was wondering if I could take Yui out shopping tonight."

Reiji set down the knife he was using. Ruri found it difficult to pick up what kind of emotion he was conveying. Somehow, he seemed exasperated. "You know, Ruri," he sighed. "Yui isn't exactly your average houseguest."

"I know," Ruri responded, daydreaming a bit about Yui's smiling face when she had found the Bambi book earlier.

"So you understand why I can't let you take her out."

Ruri snapped to attention. Usually, when she got a no (especially from Reiji) then she would take that no for an answer. This time, though, she genuinely didn't understand why taking Yui out of the house was such a bad thing, and she was a bit desperate to go out and do something with her.

"I'll be very careful," she promised.

"I understand, Ruri. It's not that you're neglectful or untrustworthy, that's not it. It's…" His voice trailed off. He considered his choice of words. The words "naïve" and "innocent" ran through his head. "Well, you're too young."

She wasn't ready to get up yet. "I go shopping by myself all the time."

"I know that," Reiji sighed again.

"I'll be very careful. I'll make sure she doesn't get lost. I won't hurt her again or anything like that." She was starting to talk fast.

"For goodness sake, Ruri, I'm afraid she's going to _run away_."

Ruri didn't have a response to that. Would Yui run away from her? Just earlier they were on the sofa together and Yui had nearly fallen asleep on her. But yes, Ruri supposed that it would be understandable if she did run away. She had hurt Yui, after all, and made her bleed and made her cry - it only made sense that Yui would want to run away.

"...Okay," Ruri said, a little quieter. "I'm sorry for bothering you."

"Ruri," Reiji gave her a sad look. "Don't give me that face."

Ruri wasn't really aware that she had been making a face. She could tell, though, that her voice sounded dejected. She hastily tried to appear proper for Reiji again: "I'm sorry. I didn't do it on purpose."

Reiji was already moved by how pitiful she seemed. "Look," he said after some deliberation. "You can go if you take someone else with you."

Ruri perked right up. "Really?"

"That's right. Not Shu," he added immediately. "He's utterly useless for tasks like this. You should ask Subaru to go with you. He's been so holed up in his room lately that he might miss you visit entirely."

"Thank you." Ruri was trembling to hold back her excitement now. Reiji could tell, and a small smile appeared on his face. Ruri was usually acting so dignified around him - well, because he had practically trained her too - but it was nice seeing her with a genuine smile for once.

"And you need to be back before sunrise."

"Yes!" Ruri nodded enthusiastically, thanked Reiji again with a sign, and rushed off to Subaru's room. With a satisfied look on his face, Reiji went back to preparing dinner.

Convincing Subaru to go shopping with them as well was no easy feat, but after Reiji interjected to tell him that this was an order and not a request, Subaru accompanied the two girls on their shopping trip. Even if he did complain the whole way there.

Yui seemed very grateful to be out of the house for once. She had been stuck there for all hours of the day, except for school, after all. Ruri might have been glad that she was so happy, but she couldn't get the thought of Yui running away out of her mind.

They spent most of their time in a bookstore, searching for new books that they could read together - in a language that Yui could understand this time. Subaru had been grumbling the whole time thinking that they would be dress shopping or something inane and girly like that, so the fact that they had opted for a quiet bookstore instead shut him up. He didn't mind these types of places at all. Though he did mutter once or twice that they had a whole library of books at home so they should just read those books instead, rather than buying new ones. Well, at that point, he was just complaining for the sake of complaining. He just didn't want to be running errands.

After they spent some time there, picking out different books and flipping through others, they went to go buy them and some jewelry on a stand by the register caught Yui's eye. She examined them with wide eyes and a smile, commenting on different ones she liked. Ruri saw her eyes linger on a pair of matching necklaces, both with little rabbit charms that were facing towards each other. When they were close enough to touch, it looked like the two rabbits were kissing.

While Yui continued to the register, Ruri stayed a bit longer and stared at the necklaces on the display shelf. She grabbed them off of the display, placed them on top of her own armful of books, and went on to buy them.

The three of them, after leaving the bookstore, walked along the street looking for anything else that was still open at that time of night. Ruri and Yui walked ahead, talking excitedly, and Subaru lingered behind with his hands shoved in his pockets. He was somewhat curious about the two of them, though, so he stayed close enough to listen in on their conversation.

"I think there's a place down here that sells ice cream" Ruri offered.

"That sounds wonderful!" Yui couldn't stop smiling. "I'm sorry for troubling you like this, Ruri."

"You're not troubling me at all." She hesitated. "I like spending time with you."

"Me too! To be honest-" Yui looked up at the dark night sky. "-this was a lot more fun than any date I've been on."

Ruri heard Subaru coughing suddenly from behind them.

"Have you ever been on dates?" Ruri asked, feeling awfully strange.

"Oh, well…" Yui laughed nervously. "I've gotten dinner with boys from church before, but their parents were always there too, so I don't know if it counts. And I've gone to dances at my Catholic school too. But that's all pretty boring stuff. What about you, Ruri?"

Ruri looked back at Subaru, who had been trying to close the gap between them to hear them better. He did a double-take, embarrassed at being caught in the act. "Subaru, what constitutes a date exactly?"

"How should I know?" he spluttered. "Anyway, you've never been on one."

"I've met with potential suitors before," Ruri answered Yui. "But I guess those aren't dates."

"Suitors!" Yui repeated incredulously. "Like for marriage?"

:Yes," Ruri responded matter-of-factly, and saw Subaru cringe a bit.

Yui was very invested now. "Did you like any of them?"

"I didn't get much of a chance to know them."

Yui sighed wistfully. "When I was a little girl I dreamt about being a princess who married a prince. But now I think that it must be scary to be in an arranged marriage. You're so young, too."

"Is it a bad thing?"

"I think it would be much better to marry someone that you love, rather than someone your parents set you up with. But I guess that's not your decision, huh…"

Ruri thought about it for a while. She had never even considered the possibility of loving those boys. There were some that she had enjoyed the company of, to be sure, but none of them did she love as much as Yui or her family. Suddenly reminded, she dug her hands in her pockets to take out the rabbit necklaces.

"Yui," she said, stopping in her tracks. She unclipped one of the necklaces. "I want you to wear this."

Yui stood with her mouth agape for her moment. "Oh, Ruri! The ones we saw in the bookstore!"

"Um-" Ruri took a deep breath. She was a person who almost always knew what to say, but in this situation she couldn't quite figure it out. She really didn't want to get it wrong and scare Yui away. "When I first met you I thought that you must be a really special person. I thought that you were very beautiful and…" She paused. "My...my mind's going blank."

Yui laughed in the same way a fairy might laugh, and she reached out and held Ruri's hands while looking her in the face. "Go on."

"I loved spending time with you and looking at you and hearing your voice, and after a while I realized that I love _you_." The words were just spilling out. "It gets difficult to think because I love you so much. And I hurt you because I wasn't thinking. I regret it; I've spent every day since regretting it. I hurt someone that I love."

"Oh, Ruri…"

"I don't think I deserve you. I would understand if you hated me or if you ran away right now. But I don't want it." Ruri felt emotion welling up in her chest. "I'm selfish, because I want you to stay and I want you to love me too, even after I hurt you. I'm sorry. Even if you leave me eventually, I desperately want you to stay by my side a little longer." With hands shaking because they could hardly contain all the love she had, Ruri clipped the rabbit necklace around Yui's neck.

Yui had her mouth parted slightly from the surprise of Ruri's sudden confession. She shivered when Ruri's fingers touched her neck. Wordlessly (because she couldn't even offer a word to respond to Ruri's sincerity), she took the matching necklace from Ruri, and fastened it around Ruri's neck in the same manner that Ruri had done for her. She smiled angelically at Ruri - her face seemed to radiate as much light as the moon in the sky.

That was all. They had no need for any more conversation. The two girls intertwined their fingers together, and Ruri looked back towards her brother.

"Subaru, let's go home."

Subaru was _dumbfounded_. He had just witnessed what was probably the most intimate moment that his sister has had in her whole life, right in front of his face. She poured her entire heart out right in front of this girl and Subaru just _stood there_ and _watched it_. Subaru was completely, absolutely speechless.

"I...uh, yeah." He could not produce any words other than that. He couldn't say something like that out loud, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he was wishing his sister happiness.

The three of them walked home, Ruri and Yui holding hands all the way. Ruri and Yui chatted excitedly about the books that they bought, and which ones they were going to read first. When they reached the door, Yui stopped and looked at Subaru.

"Um...If it's okay-" she said meekly. "-I just want to talk with Ruri in the rose garden for a little bit. But, um, alone, if that's all right."

Subaru noticed that Yui was blushing. He started blushing a bit himself, and nodded stiffly before hurrying back into the house to give the two their moment. When he shut the door, he let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he had finally separated himself from all of that emotional atmosphere.

That didn't last long, though, because Laito had been there in the living room, hovering near the door with a paper in his hands. His eyes were misty and red.

"Su - Suba- Subaru," he choked out. Tears started rolling down his cheeks right away. He clutched the paper close to his chest.

Once again, Subaru was shocked by the sudden display of emotion in front of him. "What? What the hell are you snivelling about?"

With a sudden ugly sob, Laito lunged forward and threw his arms around Subaru in a big hug. Crying loudly, he buried his face in Subaru's shoulder and kept repeating his name: "Subaru, Subaru-"

"What the fuck, Laito!" Subaru yelped, feeling his whole body tense up from being hugged all of a sudden. "Jesus, you're getting my shirt all wet." He grabbed Laito's shoulders and forced him away. "What the hell happened?"

Laito sniffled and took in a shaky breath. He was gripping the paper so tightly that Subaru thought it might tear in half. "It's a le-letter from th-tha-that man," Laito said through his tears.

"And? What does the old man want?" Subaru snatched the letter away and observed it, but it was so crumpled and stained from Laito's crying fit that he could barely read it.

With all the anguish in the world in his voice, as if the very force of misfortune were weighing itself down on Laito's back: "Ruri is _engaged_."


End file.
